Arifureta: From Maverick to Hero
by Seiker Hikaru
Summary: A class maverick, the rebel of the student body who trouble has a bad habit of finding, yet perhaps the luckiest among them all the same. But willing even to jump into the Abyss to save a friend and a heart that burns like an inferno... and maybe a dragon stuck in his soul to lend a helping hand here and there. "Let's go ahead and conquer this world!"
1. Prologue

**Prologue: Leave the World Behind**

He didn't have any idea what he was now looking at. Before the young man named Enshin Kakumei stood, of all things, a dragon. Its body had to be over fifty meters long and was the four limbed, imposing frame of a Western Dragon. It was covered end to end in scales of such a deep yet bright shade of crimson they looked like fire, yet also in metallic shades as well, creating patterns of the two shades along its body. It's head itself bore a mane of just as bright crimson hair flickering around as if it wasmade of flames. Grand, curled horns pulsing with the light of that black fire swept back from the beast's crown. Rows of razor-sharp fangs showed as its maw opened, and golden, slit pupil eyes bore down on the teenager.

The otherwise white space around them was bare except for them, though it's massive size made the dragon seem like it was taking up a suffocating amount of room within this space, massive wings as long as the beast's body folding outwards and only adding to the oppressive feeling it gave off.

"A human child huh? Well, there could be worst things to end up in I suppose. Hehe, I wonder what that world will look like through your eyes, boy."

"What?!" Was the only word that came out of Enshin's mouth. Obviously he was shocked at what he was seeing before him. It was a _dragon _after all, the things that only existed in legend! Yet here one was, right before him and mugging at him like a cocky old man.

Surely amused with the teenager's shock, the dragon let out a rumbling laugh. It didn't say another word however, as its body was wrapped in black flames that then quickly moved forward. Enshin could only raise his arms as the flames engulfed him. He was left wondering moreso now just what in the hell was going on to begin with.

"How did today end up this way?!"

* * *

Monday, the day of the week hated by pretty much every student but the goody two shoes teacher's pets, honor students, and the ones who for whatever blasted reasons actually _enjoyed _school. For Enshin school was far from something he liked and more a complete and total obligation he only fulfilled because it was something he had to do. High school wasn't even mandatory in Japan, but his parents insisted he go rather than jump right into the work force after middle school.

Of course, being he _was _a student in Japan was assuredly one of the main reasons he disliked school. While Enshin had features that were assuredly Japanese, the fact he bore bright blonde hair and blue eyes made him stick out like a sore thumb in crowds of black or brown hair, and eye colors that often matched it. Considering the culture he was around, this meant he was "exotic", and even worse because of other stigmas, immediately marked as a delinquent because of the platinum bright shade of blonde he'd inherited from his foreigner grandfather.

Granted the saving grace was that it wasn't like he was unattractive. He was fairly tall compared to most other people his age, standing a good 177 centimeters. He'd heard from plenty of people his fair features brought on by the quarter-foreign nature of his heritage made him quite the looker… but that his slanted, sharp gaze often didn't help matters since it caused his eyes to bear something of a natural glare to them that was in no way his fault or something that actually spoke about his personality at all. For the most part anyway.

As was usual during his walk to school, he kept noise dulled by a sturdy pair of headphones and blaring rock music. It was such a routine for him Enshin didn't even have to hear what some of the other students walking near him on the road to know what they were saying. "Look at that guy. Is he some kind of delinquent?" or "His hair has got to be dyed or something." and many other comments of that ilk were so often directed towards him he knew them by heart.

As usual, he arrived just a few minutes before class began, and ignoring anybody else present, took his seat at the very convenient back corner of the classroom. Of course casting his eyes forward meant he readily saw what came from his classmates. It was varied, but the gazes that quickly averted as he looked at them all had different emotions behind them. The ones from the boys were mostly of jealousy or anger, the girls ranged from mildly put off to in a couple cases, enamored looking.

Enshin didn't care much for other people's opinions of him though, so they went widely ignored. Mostly because he wouldn't be removing the headphones until class bothered to start, but also because he was just used to this kind of routine. What caught his interest more was when the door opened again just before the time when the first bell would have rung. Shuffling in and looking like he'd barely slept was the boy who was with not doubt disliked even more than Enshin, who _at least _had a few friends and admirers, albeit most of them in other classes.

Hajime Nagumo. A boy who in terms of look and even personality was remarkable in how unremarkable he was. Known for sleeping in class and the fact he was a game and manga otaku, which Enshin knew more personally was due to the other boy's parents' line of work he often assisted them in. While the rest of the class shot varying degrees of scornful looks Hajime's way, Enshin was the, while not only, first one to at least not give the other boy a nasty look as he sat down.

"Another long night?" Enshin leaned forward in his seat as he tapped Hajime on the back, who turned to him and gave a drowsy nod. And while Hajime clearly just tried to ignore it, Enshin couldn't help but click his tongue as the heckling started from the usual suspects in their classroom, because they just couldn't resist the chance to throw needles at Hajime.

"Sup you gross otaku! Stay up all night playing video games again? I bet you were playing porn games the whole time!"

"Wow what a creep! What kind of disgusting pervert stays up all night playing porn games?"

The second the gaggle of boys started laughing, they went to sudden whimpers as Enshin turned his gaze to them. Were it at all possible they'd have been turned into frozen statues from how cold the glare was that they were being given, ironically enough for someone who's name was written with the characters "Fire" and "God" in it. Thus was the reason Enshin was often called a delinquent, as even the worst in the class went frigid when he turned to look at them with even a hint of animosity in his gaze.

The one who started the heckling and as such was the leader of the little group was named Daisuke Hiyama. He never tired of teasing Hajime but he was also probably the person who was the most terrified of Enshin thanks to a little incident earlier in the year that ended with Hiyama learning just how strong of a right hook Enshin was packing. Bullies like him always crumbled the second someone with more power than them made it clear who the alpha dog was. His lackeys were Yoshiki Saitou, Reichi Kondou, and Shinji Nakano. _Also _victims of Enshin's somewhat legendary punches. While they never seemed to tire of trying to rib Hajime, they backed off the second Enshin so much as glared at them so there wouldn't be a repeat of the last time he caught them getting physical with the other boy.

"Seriously. I know it's a bother Hajime, but you should really stand up for yourself a bit." Enshin said, prodding the other boy in the back of the neck, causing the other boy to yelp a bit.

"It's fine, really! It doesn't bother me that much at all, trust me Enshin-san I'm fine."

"Drop the 'san'. I don't like honorifics."

Hajime chuckled while smiling. Even if he was, Enshin could tell it _did _bother the boy, even if just a little bit. Enshin was basically Hajime's only actual friend in class as it was. And it's not like Hajime had any problems that would have stopped him from actually being able to make friends if he tried. He was perfectly normal in every way, though Enshin thought his dislike of violence was a bit of a flaw. And while sure, being an otaku would often get someone odd looks, but the kind of targeted bullying Hajime underwent usually wasn't a result. So why did pretty much the entire male side of the class hate his guts?

A simple answer as it happened.

"Good morning, Nagumo-kun! You barely made it on time today too. I think you should at least make an effort to come early. Oh, and good morning to you too Kakumei-kun." A single girl chose to warmly greet Hajime, earning a nervous chuckle from the boy. The girl was one of the few other people who were actually kind to Hajime, but also the reason they all hated him.

Kaori Shirasaki, who by all means was a quintessential Japanese beauty. Smooth black hair that fell down to her waist. Large, alluring eyes filled with innate kindness, and a soft, small face. Other students called her a goddess thanks to her beauty and kindness, the kind of girl many a boy was enamored with but dared not approach. Understanding to a fault and seemingly incapable of getting angry for any reason whatsoever, of course she found herself as one of the most beloved people in the school. The fact she was even willing to greet a labeled delinquent (which was entirely a bunch of crap since Enshin never missed a day of school and had quite high grades) stood a testament to that.

And for reasons completely unknown to Enshin, Kaori had taken an interest in Hajime. Like Enshin's own unfounded rep as a bed student, Hajime had much the same issue since he often dozed during classes, though in truth he had pretty average grades despite his regular all nighters. But, because Kaori was nice to pretty much everyone and always looking out for them, they all assumed as much was the case with Hajime.

Enshin however, while not sure of the reason why, was able to see better because he wasn't what he liked to refer to as "a blasted dumbass." While others saw Hajime squandering Kaori's kindness by not becoming a "better student" due to her supposed efforts to reforms his "bad habits", and were Hajime maybe a few degrees better looking they probably wouldn't have minded Kaori's interest in him. But the fact was Hajime was utterly average and plain looking. As such every other average looking guy in the class looked at Hajime with disdain and obvious "Why him and not me" mentalities, while the girls were mad at him for not reforming one bit.

Enshin though, saw the truth of the matter for what it was, because again, he wasn't an idiot who was blind to that kind of thing: Simple fact was, Kaori had _some _degree of feelings for Hajime. While the latter was too daft to see it due to his position in the class and general attitude of life being "hobbies before reality". She wasn't being nice just out of the goodness of her own heart, she actually wanted to get closer to Hajime for whatever reason had sparked such emotions in her.

"_Here we go again." _Enshin couldn't help but bring a hand to his face as Hajime awkwardly responded to Kaori's greeting, and the bloodthirsty glares went down thanks to Enshin returning them with his own. He could also about guess the kind of things going through Hajime's mind right now as well as Hajime awkwardly looked around like he wanted to escape from this.

"Why does she always look at me that way?" "There's no way she could be romantically interested in me. I'm not that conceited." "Is there some other reason she does this?" So on and so forth within the mind of a confused, bewildered seventeen year old who failed to grasp the idea of such a "goddess" being kind to him for anything but her own good will or perhaps ulterior motives. Granted not that the blame was solely on Hajime himself. Kaori was something of an airhead who seemed entirely oblivious to the fact _she _was the reason so many people disliked Hajime.

Well, either that or she genuinely didn't give a single hoot about that fact and sought to try anyway regardless. Enshin almost snickered a bit as this made him think of how normally this kind of situation would be on the reverse side. The other problem was that Hajime had found himself in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. No matter what he did, he would be earning the ire of the class whether he openly rejected Kaori's kindness or continued to awkwardly just go along with it.

Enshin for his own efforts had long since started playing a game on his phone out of disinterest, only occasionally glancing up to stop people from glaring at the ongoing conversation between Kaori and Hajime. Though as soon as it did finish, three other students walked over. They'd been watching the two likes hawks, and of the three Enshin could say he only liked two of them, while the other was a source of ire for him for _many _reasons, but for completely different reasons than Hajime's bullies. _Very _different reasons.

He ignored most of their words, but only one of them, a girl, actually bothered greeting Hajime herself. Shizuku Yaegashi, Kaori's best friend and one of the only girls in class Enshin actually could call a friend. Black hair tied into a high ponytail, and brown, almond shaped eyes that gave off a "big sister" kindness to them but also a sense of coolness rather than potentially cold. She was tall too, around 172 centimeters which put her just barely under most other boys around. Combine that with her fit form and she gave off the aura of a dignified samurai.

A rather aptdescription in Enshin's mind as he knew from personal experience how good Shizuku was with a sword, seeing as she was the heir to a dojo and all. Peerless in her skill and even fully undefeated, she started being called "onee-sama" pretty quickly around the school. Enshin had personal experience with her sword skills since, by some kind of dumb luck, they'd been neighbors until first year when he had to move due to his dad's work. Not quite childhood friends though, they'd been twelve when they first met.

The first boy of the three new arrivals, who had greeted Kaori with one _hell _of a cliched line about her kindness, was also the one Enshin didn't get along with, Kouki Amanogawa. Good looking, tall, had outstanding grades, was good at sports, hell even his _name _was flashy, having the characters for "light" and "radiance" in it. Kind to everybody he met and with girls falling for him at every turn yet utterly, completely, and insufferably oblivious to it. And by his own words, a strong sense of justice that was more like self-deluded righteousness into believing he was right about everything and anything no matter what.

Enshin hated everything about Kouki's existence because of that last part specifically. He couldn't stand not only how insufferably idealistic Kouki was, but how the other boy basically went totally deaf if _anything _that went against his worldview was brought forward to him in any way. He was the quintessential brick wall of a person so entirely oblivious to the fact that despite being well meaning, he was also a _massive _jerk in spite of his kind nature. If Kouki believed something was right, then it was right and no matter what someone said they could never change his mind about that idea. If he thought it was wrong, then it was wrong, and you could _also _not make him think otherwise. His natural charisma meant most people just went along with him out of sheer doggedness, but the people who actually knew Kouki like Shizuku and Kaori, or who were just so fundamentally opposite Kouki in world view such as Enshin, knew far better.

But the worst thing-_the worst thing-_in Enshin and a lot of other people's minds when they weren't being dazzled by the fool was his belief humans were fundamentally good people. The young man lacked any and all comprehension of the ideas of baseless malice and pettiness to the point he'd outright blame the victim of a situation because in his mind, they had to have done _something _to earn what happened to them, or else the perpetrators wouldn't have done it, right? And the core of the problem _was _this lack of malice and hatred. He meant well in everything he said and was completely sincere, but so fully believed he was the one in the right when he _did _he tended to completely ignore the thoughts and feelings of other people.

His line about Kaori's kindness? The idiot didn't at all think Kaori could have _possibly _actually _liked _Hajime. To him, she was only nice to Hajime because she was too nice for her own good, there wasn't anything else too it because Kouki didn't _think _there was anything else too it.

All in all, Enshin could very safely say Kouki was somebody he fundamentally could never get along with until, _somehow, _someone shoved Kouki through the door that was reality and gave him one _very _belated fact check about how the world didn't give a flying damn about how he thought it worked. But, Enshin didn't think that day would ever come because he'd probably perform some ridiculous mental gymnastics to try and justify it.

Now as for the other boy in the group, he was someone Enshin _actually _got along with, if little else than mutual respect and the ability to actually hold a conversation with one another and not be someone Enshin would direct his infamous glares at. Ryutarou Sakagami, an incredibly tall young man who towered over everyone else in the room and was a veritable wall of muscle. Kouki's best friend who would no doubt follow him everywhere but _at least _had more sense to hold his damn tongue and read a room at times. A musclehead without any delicacy as the best set of words for him. Ryutarou had little respect for Hajime due to his seemingly lazy attitude and school effort, but compared to that he could at the least _not _treat Enshin like a failure of a human being and actually respected him since Enshin did actually work hard for his good grades, and who had proven more than once to be fairly tough physically speaking.

But, as said before, that was about the extent of Enshin and Ryutarou's relations with one another.

"Morning, everyone." Hajime did, at least, respond to the greetings. "And, well, you know what they say Yaegashi-san, you reap what your sow. It's my own fault for staying up so late all the time."

"And here we go again…" Enshin sighed as Kouki and Ryutaoru glared daggers at Hajime, like they were saying _"How dare you talk to Yuzuku so casually?". _Enshin and Shizuku just exchanged glances and both sighed. Shizuku _was _about as popular as Kaori after all, so even if she didn't mind such things, the fact everybody else _did _still remained.

"If you realize it's a problem, shouldn't you try and fix it? I don't think it's fair to Kaori to keep letting her spoil you. She doesn't have time to always be looking after you either." Kouki's warning was sternly put to Hajime, though Enshin's sardonic chuckle turned the shining boy's attention over to him. "What's so funny, Kakumei-san?"

"Oh nothing. I just continue to be _wowed _by the fact you _actually _still think it's like that." Enshin's reply made Kouki tilt his head. As if the idea things _weren't _that way was completely foreign to him. Because of course it sounded that way to him. "I'm just saying, maybe you should let Shirasaki do what she wants to do. If she wants to be nice to Hajime and be around him, what's the problem there?"

And of course at the mere _insinuation _of that idea, fiery glares wishing for death turned towards Enshin, who returned them with his own. And again, the tide was frozen over easily. Shizuku, however, nodded in agreement, while Kouki _again _looked totally bewildered. Though of course not that Kaori was going to be silent, even as Hajime looked about ready to have a panic attack as he desperately looked to Enshin… sadly when it came to Kouki, Enshin couldn't be stopped.

"What are you talking about Kouki-kun? I'm talking to Nagumo-kun because I want to." As Kaori dropped _that _bombshell it almost felt like the class had exploded as a sudden uproar happened. Yet again, Enshin's legendary glare put down the rising tide of killer looks that got shot his way immediately.

"Huh?... ah, I see. You really are far too kind, Kaori."

_WHAM_

And within and _instant _of the obvious interpretation leaving Kouki's mouth, Enshin's head fell hard onto his desk as a frustrated groan left his throat. He hated it, he hated _everything _about having to listen to Kouki speak and continue to blather on like every word out of a person's mouth just contorted to fit his worldview without fail. Shizuku, knowing well enough how Enshin thought, went so far as to pat him on the shoulder as he kept letting out that pained groan. It wasn't pity, thankfully, just an attempt at reassurance.

It would have been useless for him to correct Kouki again at this point, so Enshin just sighed as he sat back up, ignoring the throbbing on his forehead and disregarding a comment about the red spot now present under his bangs thanks to that action.

"Sorry about that. They don't mean any harm by it." Shizuku at least, had enough emotional sense to read the room and quietly apologized to Hajiime, who just awkwardly shrugged in response to her. And perhaps as a saving grace, the bell for the first period _finally _rang after what felt like almost forever. Their teacher, all too used to the turbulence of the class to the point she no longer cared about the chaos at times, came in and started the normal routines for it all. Enshin was, at the least, able to finally clear his head and focus a bit now that work _was _starting, and as Hajime chose to doze off to sleep, he was back on duty at dissuading the looks from other classmates yet again.

By the time lunch had finally rolled around, Enshin was the type who always brought his own lunch. He'd also elected to effectively tune out with his headphones as he ate, though at the least he did observe what was going on around him. Hajime was as quick to eat as ever since he only ate enough at lunch to sate himself. Now if things had been routine, Hajime would have long since bolted from the classroom and found a secluded place to nap in until the period ended. Apparently today was the day yet another all-nighter made his wits finally leave him once Monday hit.

"_Three, two, one…" _Enshin mentally counted down the second he saw Kaori start moving her seat over to Hajime's clear but not very visible distress. The routine just started up again. Cold stares went Hajime's way. Enshin shut those stares down. Then Kouki and Ryutarou showed up. Kouki made some dumb oblivious comment Kaori bluntly responded to, so on and so forth. Enshin was by now feeling quite bored about all of this.

"_If things could just change up a bit, that'd be great. Something a bit more exciting that typical reality y'know? Heh… that's just wishful thinking for something." _Enshin gave a snide chuckle of his own as he set his phone down. He pulled off his headphones and was about to say something, but, his voice stopped dead as he froze.

A glowing, silver circle had appeared on the ground just under Kouki's feet. It looked like the kind of magic circle you'd see in a game or manga of some kind, engraved with geometric patterns and runes. Everyone in the class saw it too, the circle growing wider and wider until it almost took up the floor space of the entire room, the light growing brighter and brighter as the students also began vocally panicking while their teacher tried to get them to calm down. Enshin closed his eyes as the light became absolutely blinding as it became a near explosion of light.

After a few moments or perhaps minutes, the light finally faded and the classroom returned to normal… well, normal, except for the fact everyone who had been in the room had vanished completely. The only things left were half eaten lunch boxes, school bags, various devices left sitting on desks or clattering to the floor. Everything _but _the people had been left in the room.

This incident would become known as the "Mass High School Disappearance", and made quite the wave across the country when it happened. But, what happened after this event was a story for another time and another place.

* * *

**A/N**

**This is one of those things I started doing on a… weird whim of mine. Arifureta became a new guilty pleasure of mine with the LNs more particularly… and then this was the result of it. Heck in a first for me I've actually one a few chapters ahead of time in prep for eventually posting this. Hehe… so let's see how this turns out.**


	2. Chapter 1

_From Maverick to A Hero_

**Chapter 1: We're in Another World**

It was after that flash of light in which Enshin had experienced what he felt had probably been a dream of some kind. As his eyes opened and he lowered his arms, his mind raced a bit as he was still processing what he had just bore witness too. The image of that crimson and silver dragon had been burned into his mind now, and he still felt like the heat from those black flames was still present. His body actually felt oddly warm.

But even if that was still in his mind, he also realized very quickly he, and somehow his entire class _plus _those who hadn't even been in the classroom at the time, were somewhere else than their school.

Enshin's scanning stopped when his eyes fell onto a massive mural, at least ten meters tall. The faintly smiling figure painted onto it had features that didn't define any kind of gender, looking somewhere in between male and female. Their head bordered by a halo, golden hair flowing free and robes of pure white. In the background were rivers, mountains, and plains. It was truly a stunning piece of artwork. But, something about it sent a shiver up Enshin's back that made him avert his gaze quickly. As it happened, he and Hajime wound up locking eyes by accident. It appeared he'd been looking at the mural as well.

The two boys then went to scanning their surroundings after confirming everybody else was safe, if just as confused and dumbfounded as they were. They were standing on some kind of plinth and it was obvious they were in some kind of grand cathedral, the kind right out of old fantasy stories or described in overly embellished historical texts trying way too hard to make the old days sound more sophisticated than modernity ever could be. Grand pillars of marble stretched from the floor to the ceiling, and even the floor glimmered white from the well polished tiles laid into it.

But they weren't the only ones in the space either. They were surrounded by, and Enshin roughly guessed this number, thirty people, all in sterling white robes edged in gold, and all were kneeled down as if in prayer. Near each of them were staves that looked like what a bishop would hold, each one tipped in discs that were giving off a ringing sound.

"Well this is weird." Enshin couldn't help but make the comment, and Hajime nodded along to it.

One of the robed men then stepped forward. A man at least in his seventies, and his attire was far more lavish than any of the others, elaborately decorated all over and with bold red highlighting the white and gold, while a just as elaborate monks hat sat tall atop his head. Despite his visible looks, "old" perhaps wouldn't be the word used to describe him, as the man gave off the air of someone perhaps a decade or two younger than he appeared to be.

Enshin, for his credit, immediately found the man suspicious by virtue of what was going on alone. The jingling of the man's staff might have sounded soothing, but it did nothing to stop the brightly haired boy from being on alert as all eyes were drawn to the elderly man. And finally, he opened his mouth, his voice equally dissonant to his appearance, far stronger than his wizened looks would have led one to guess.

"Welcome to Tortus, brave young heroes. It is our pleasure to welcome you here. I am the Pope of the Holy Church, Ishtar Langbard. It is an honor to make your acquiantances." The good-natured smile that appeared on Ishtar's face as he spoke clearly got most of the confused students to relax. With a simple wave of his hand, he gestured the lot to follow him. Without much else in mind on what to do, they followed the priest out of the grand chamber and into another room. The room was still large but the air was much softer, furnished with fine plush carpet and long tables with just enough seats to hold the entire class with a couple left open. A room that would be much easier to talk in than the echoing spaces of the cathedral with no doubt.

Enshin couldn't help but chuckle in a miffed manner as he observed the room was just as lavish as the last one despite it. The craftsmanship of every furnishing was clearly masterful even to untrained eyes. Grand tapestries hung from the walls, and stained glass made the sunlight that filtered in through them bathe the spaces near them in an array of colors. It was clearly some kind of banquet hall. The class teacher, Aiko Hatayama and Kouki's group all took seats well at the front of the tables, and the rest of the class followed suit the rest of the way. Enshin and Hajime took seats well at the back of the tables, seated across from each other.

There wasn't a fuss, for now, simply because everyone was too frazzled to actually make one. Plus, despite the fact the students were clearly tense and about ready to break at any moment, Ishtar had said he would explain everything, and _of course, _Kouki's twenty in charisma meant he could keep everyone calm with ease. Aiko was almost in full out tears at seeing one of her students do what should've been her job. Enshin couldn't help but look at the small woman with a bit of sympathy in his eyes.

As soon as all the students had been seated, the doors opened again with carts pushed along by maids. Honest to god, actual maids. Not the ones from those cosplay cafes in a certain technological hub of Tokyo, or the old ladies who called themselves maids still found in Europe. Honest to whatever deity would listen, cute girl maids. Red-blooded male he was, like a lot of the other boys Enshin couldn't help but ogle them as they went by.

The girls for that matter, all started glaring at the boys with eyes cold enough to freeze hell over as they stared in slack jawed, libido driven awe. Enshin got a sudden chuckle when he saw Hajime stay frozen stiff with eyes locked forward even as he was served. A small scan over led to Enshin catching Kaori staring at Hajime with just as cold a stare as the other girls, but almost with the intent to actually _do _something. But the second Hajime looked over when he felt the gaze, Kaori dropped right back to her normally fluffy, warm air, dissuading any odd ideas Hajime had about what he had just felt bore into him.

Once they had all been served, Ishtar finally began speaking to them again.

"Now then, I'm sure you must all be confused about what has happened to you and this situation. Rest assured heroes, I will explain everything to you, starting from the very beginning. All I ask is that you hear me out until the end." Ishtar's statements felt… generic. Enshin compared it immediately to the opening talk in a videogame with how those words sounded. Was he reading from a script or something? It sounded like this was somehow scripted.

But, this is what the priest said in short – the world the students now found themselves in was called Tortus. Tortus was populated primarily by three races: Humans, demons, and demi-humans, which was more of a catch-all term for a variety of races that fell under the banner of beast men to elves and anything in between, so long as it wasn't human or demon. The human nations dominated the northern parts of the continent, demons to the south, and demi-humans to the east within a large forest.

Humans and demons had been at war for a few hundred years, and there was next to no love between them. Humans had sheer numbers, but an individual demon was far stronger than a human, so they had effectively been stuck in a stalemate for ages, and there hadn't been anything more than small skirmishes in decades. But a breakthrough on the side of the demons had led to this stalemate beginning to slip. Somehow, the demons had begun gaining the ability to control monsters, wildlife that had been so heavily infused with mana they had undergone a breed of evolution into something far more powerful.

The biology of monsters wasn't well understood, so no one was quite sure how such a process worked. All they did know was that monsters tended to be very powerful and had some control over magic on an innate level, which made them incredibly dangerous foes. Very few people could manage to tame one, and those that could only ever had the ability to handle one or two at a time. So safe to say, the fact the demons were taming monsters en masse not only meant humanity was losing their numbers advantage, but that demons now had an incredibly powerful weapon at their disposal that was threatening the very existence of mankind in this world.

"You were summoned here by our blessed Lord Ehit, the patron god of mankind and the one true god of the Holy Church. He is the creator this world as well. I suspect Lord Ehit grew aware of our plight, and so realizing humanity was doomed to extermination if something was not done, summoned you forth to this world. You young heroes are from a world stronger than ours, and therefore carry a strength that surpasses that of the humans of this world." Again Enshin couldn't shake the "this is scripted" feeling the words from the priest had to them. It wasn't like Ishtar spoke robotically, far from it, but it all felt like this speech was tailor made for the arrival of "powerful heroes" well in advanced instead of some unexpected occurrence suddenly brought to mind by divine revelation or something. "Or at least, that is what was shown to me in a divine revelation."

"There it is." Enshin shook his head as he leaned on a hand. For a moment, he felt like Ishtar was looking right at him, and in a disdainful manner, like he knew the young man didn't put full stock in anything that was being said right now.

"Regardless, I implore you all to do as Lord Ehit has willed you. Please, defeat the demons and save mankind from destruction." Ishtar almost looked like he was in a trance as he spoke, no doubt remembering his "divine revelation."

According to the man as well, over 90 percent of the human population worshiped Ehit. Those who received divine revelation from the god were, subsequently, revered as the highest people in status due to such a thing putting them very close with their god. Enshin couldn't help but think of the European Dark Ages and the ironclad, twisted hold the church had over the land at the time that had caused such a long period of stagnation since nobody actually bothered asking questions, and those who did were summarily made quiet. How twisted did this world have to be for "the will of god" to go so unquestioned? But then someone stood up and began hotly debating Ishtar's words. That someone was the teacher Aiko.

"You can't be serious!? You're telling these kids to go and fight in a war?! That is absolutely unacceptable! I cannot allow that as a teacher. Send us back right this instant! These kids have families who are no doubt worried about them! You can't just kidnap them and tell them to fight in your war!"

Each of Aiko's words had anger lacing them, all too clear on her face as well. The mid-twenties social studies teacher did have a slight problem despite trying so hard to do well by her students, and that was her small stature and cute face, being a measly 140 centimeters tall and a short, cute bob cut that _tried _to be professional looking. She looked younger than many of her students to the point many of them called her Aiko-chan due to her cute looks. A lot of students found the clash of her cute looks and her earnest attempts at teaching as best she could to be a full on case of gap moe charm. But, this gap meant she wasn't seen as a teacher to be respected and seen as an authority by her students, but more like a kid that needed to be protected.

At the least Enshin actually respected her for her teaching abilities and looked past her chibi charms. The students full out disregarded her words due to their conceptions about her, but Enshin thought she had one hell of a point. They'd just been dragged to some other world at the middle of the day, and it wasn't like they all conveniently lacked parents or families who would worry about them. Now that he thought about it, Enshin was actively worried for his own parents and grandfather, knowing that if they'd heard about things by now, they were probably losing their minds with worry about him.

But then, Ishtar's next words froze everyone to the bone.

"I am sorry, but I do not have the ability to return you all to your home world. Lord Ehit is the one who summoned you here. We were only in the chapel in order to greet you once you had arrived. None of us possess the power to call upon others from worlds not of our own." Ishtar spoke well, getting to the point of the matter before anybody could ask something along the lines of "If you called us here, then why can't you send us back?" The room had suddenly become quietly oppressive in feeling, like a thick cloud ready to burst. "It is by Lord Ehit's will you were brought here, and by Lord Ehit's will would you be able to return. Whether or not that will happen is up to His will alone."

As it all started to sink in, the other students rose up and began shouting in protest of all kinds. Obviously, this situation was absurd to them, and the idea they couldn't go home only made it worse. Enshin and Hajime however, were a lot calmer than the others. Both where weighing their options about this. Hajime had enough experience with novels like this and Enshin had seen all the shows from the craze of the other world genre that had hit Japan. At best, the two surmised it could have been a _lot _worse for them, all things considered. The worst case could have been being summoned and enslaved, but rather apparently, they were all here as hailed heroes instead.

Enshin looked over to the silent Ishtar, and he flinched a bit as he saw the look in the man's eyes as he looked over the students. It was clear, cold contempt for them. He didn't have to put much to it, he was likely thinking something along the lines of "Why are they protesting? They should be rejoicing at being the chosen of our great Lord" or something else along those lines.

Kouki then stood up and slammed a fist down onto the table. The protest of the class fell silent. Once he knew everyone was looking at him, Kouki then spoke himself.

"Everyone, there's no use complaining to Ishtar about all of this. There's nothing he can do about it. And… And I, at least, want to stay and fight. These people are on the verge of being annihilated, and knowing that, how can I just stand by and do nothing, how can I leave them to a fate like that? And if we were summoned here to save humanity, than if we succeed there's a chance we can go home! Well, Ishtar-san, do you think that's possible?"

Enshin had to resist the urge to slam his head onto the table as Kouki spoke. Because _of course _the fool thought that way and was so ready and willing to jump on board the 3:10 to Insanity all because someone gave him a sob story about their people being on the verge of possible destruction. Though it seemed that kind of foolish idealism was exactly what Ishtar wanted, because Enshin saw that the priest was looking at Kouki like that was _exactly _what he wanted to hear the whole time.

"It is as you said. Lord Ehit is not so unkind that He would disregard the wishes of his chosen heroes if they succeed at their gifted task."

"And have we gained some kind of powers too? Ever since we arrived here, I've felt far stronger for some reason."

"That is right. It would be safe to assume you each have strength equivalent to around a dozen men if not moreso."

"Alright then. I'm going to fight. If we save everyone than we can go home! So just you watch, I'm going to save everyone, including us!" As Kouki's charisma started sweeping everyone along, Enshin sat back and sighed with a hand over his face. He ignored how the other members of the "Perfect Party" chimed in their support in a scene Enshin found to be the most heavily cliched thing he'd ever seen in life, complete with Kouki saying each of their names in turn as they spoke.

He wanted to hit something _very _hard right now. But, Enshin expressing his usual attitude and taking the wind out of everyone's sails wouldn't have been helpful at all. At least until the initial wave of things rolled over, best to just let everyone be caught up in their leader's magnetism. Better for everyone to get situated first. Though Aiko was in tears as she ran among the students trying to convince them otherwise while they all started agreeing to fight as well and join in on this war that wasn't even theirs by innate happening.

Enshin though, assumed most people were just trying to escape from their anxieties about all of this. Nobody had any clue what real war could really be like, they'd been living in peace for their entire lives so the idea had never crossed their minds. Best to find a way to keep their sanity at the least.

But, Enshin and Hajime both were looking at Ishtar and taking notes of the man. He was looking at Kouki with a satisfied smile on his face. Without a doubt he had seen right through Kouki's personality without issue. It was likely he'd been taking mental notes while watching Kouki during his earlier spiel about the situation of the world, seeing Kouki's strong sense of justice make him react to such things with passion.

He had long realized which member of the group had the most influence among them all. Yet it also seemed he'd caught that Enshin was also the maverick of the bunch by aura alone from the teenager's own obvious skeptical looks and his exasperated reactions to Kouki. Enshin filed that one into the back of his mind for now, making sure to remember to watch how Ishtar would possibly deal with him from this point onwards.

But of course, _now _this all meant the group had basically been dragged into this entire mess thanks to Kouki managing to convince them to do so. And with the decision to play along for now, Enshin was already setting priorities in mind. So of course this would mean they'd have to learn how to fight. Basic logic dictated that even if they all suddenly had amazing new abilities at their disposal, the fact was they were just a class of around thirty teenagers (and one adult) from Japan and weren't exactly warriors. Throwing them headlong into fighting would've been a fools errand.

"_Granted it's not like I have any plans to fight in this war of theirs. Not my business. If he can't send me home, I ain't gonna rely on his "god" either… there's gotta be some way to do so. And I'll find it." _Enshin nodded to himself as he thought it over. If he voiced that thought he'd surely get lectured by Kouki in what would end up being a two-sided dead end of a conversation, but he really didn't have the intent on fighting a war he had no reason to. If he had powers now, he'd use them to find a way home instead. It was a big world, there had to be some kind of magic that could pull it off.

And to absolutely no surprise from Enshin as well, of course Ishtar seemed fully prepared for the students to so readily decide to go along with their "leader", _in yet another convenient thing. _The more of this passed the more Enshin was continually convinced Ishtar knew about their impending arrival very, _very _well in advanced beyond his "divine revelation" if what he'd said about Ehit was actually legit. Enshin was a pretty firm atheist even in the relatively non-religious Japan. Sure he'd visit shrines like everybody else when it came to holidays, but he never put stock in gods or other higher powers, and he wasn't about to start doing so here. For all he knew what they called a god here was just some stupidly powerful individual so beyond normal capabilities no other word could describe them.

But either way. Ishtar had _already _prepared for the students to be taken to the Heiligh Kingdom. It was supposedly at the foot of the mountains the monastery they were in was located at, and said temple was also the main headquarters of the Holy Church. Heiligh was a kingdom with close ties to the Church - legends went one of Ehit's progeny named Sharam Vaan had founded the kingdom. It was also apparently crazy kinds of wealthy, and with the fact the main temple of the main human religion was in their backyard, spoke plenty about the deep ties the kingdom had with the place.

Only again sparking Enshin to question the veracity of a religious state. He wasn't going to let that one go so easily, no sirree was he.

Now by some miracle event, Enshin had also managed to keep ahold of his phone and headphones during the transfer. Even if the device would basically be rendered absolutely useless once it's battery ran out, he figured he might as well make use of it while it lasted, putting his headphones back on as the class was then led out from the front gate of the temple. He wanted to simply drown out anything else he could for the time being because that frankly sounded like a _far _better idea to him then continuing to listen to Ishtar drone on and on.

This all gave the hallmarks of a grand embarking. They passed by more grand white architecture on their way out of the temple. An endless sea of clouds spread before them past the triumphal arcs of the main gate, not showing a thing below the expanse of the world below, the clear blue sky above them without a blemish present, the other students awed at the sight before them. Enshin couldn't help but smirk a bit at the obvious set up as they all filed onto a circular platform with another magic circle carved into it. Clearly, the class were being set up to arrive in grand fashion as the destined emissaries of the great god who called them from another world.

It was hard for Enshin to resist laughing about all of it. Pretty much everyone huddled a bit as the platform they were on was only kept from a steep fall to below by the outer ring of the area and a golden fence. But some couldn't help their curiosity and looked around despite it, some daring to glance over _just _enough to hopefully avoid vertigo. Enshin also moved one of the cups of the headphones aside as Ishtar stepped onto the pedestal himself, the old man starting to chant.

"Faith is the key that opens the road to Heaven – Celestial Path."

"_So that's how magic works here." _Enshin hummed as he placed the cup back over his ear as the magic circle began to glow. The students around him were awed, and even Hajime couldn't help but look at Enshin with a face showing all kinds of excitement at seeing this happen for real. The pedestal then moved, beginning to glide down as if attached to an invisible cable. Quite the ruckus went around as they passed down through the sea of clouds.

When the white fog finally broke, the entire land before them was stretched out to be seen for a seemingly endless expanse. Directly below them all was a huge city, the expanse of a small kingdom. A grand castle marked the city like a grand beacon with it's dominating presence as it just from the mountain, the rest of the city expanding out from that center point like a circle. The capital city of Heiligh. The platform continued to descend until it reached one of the open roof areas of the castle, coming to a stop and finally putting some ease into the students as they started to file off to more solid ground.

Enshin and Hajime exchanged similarly sardonic smiles with one another at the whole grand display. Like Enshin, Hajime had also caught onto the purposeful vibe of "God's disciples descending from on high." Such an extravagant display would no doubt resonate well among the people, and more devout believes would probably start seeing their new "heroes" as some kind of demi-gods just as worthy of worship as the god who brought them to this world to begin with.

It couldn't help but be thought how twisted this world could possibly be. It felt as if the Church was so politically tied it kept everything in check. History had proven ages ago that religion had a bad habit of making humanity stagnate when it came to progress when it was implemented directly into a governmental body, using political leverage to keep people in line and shut down any ideas that they could simply proclaim went against "God's will" and get the thoughtless general public to agree with them with no trouble at all. It wasn't really that surprising considering this world's "god" could apparently summon people all the way from other worlds. Of course, at least for some, the would literally make everything revolve around "God's will."

It wasn't long after their landing the entourage was escorted by Ishtar to the throne room of the castle. The castle was just as ostentatious as the temple had been in decoration. Along the way, Enshin also kept checking off "fantasy trope" boxes in his mind about who they were passing. Knights in regal armor, servants, maids, officials and nobles. Each and every one of them gawked at the passing crowd being led by the most powerful person in the entire human realm, like they were well aware of who they were.

Enshin may not have been uneasy, if skeptical, but Hajime most certainly was, in fact his unease had been mounting their entire descent. He was basically sticking right behind Enshin, using the fact he was a good twelve centimeters shorter than his friend to hide behind him as best as he could.

Enshin for one was pretty much tuned out about things. The party came to a lavish set of double doors engraved in all kinds of designs, knights opening the doors so they could enter while loudly declaring their arrival. Ishtar strode in without breaking a beat at all, and while most of the other students were relatively tentative, Kouki and company seemed entirely unaffected by the extravagance around them. And again, Enshin just didn't care about it one bit.

"Enshin, what do you think about all of this?" Hajime spoke up in a hushed tone as they kept walking along, Enshin lowering his headphones. "It's all kind of… y'know."

"Stupid, wild, way too showy." Enshin said, his arms behind his head. "But for now, I'm gonna keep my mouth shut. If I went and spoke out now it'd just make everyone uneasy, and we don't need that. But like hell I'm participating in that stupid war."

"So then… what are you going to do?"

"Probably explore. Once we're done training and I actually know more about this world, I think I'll buzz off to see if I can't find a way to get everyone back home. I don't trust that pope's words one bit anyway, so if we are gonna get home, I'd rather do it myself than trust some "god" who may not even be benevolent."

"Would you mind if I went along with you?"

"Hehehe, I'd appreciate it."

There was a bit of wryness to Hajime's tone, but he'd been honest about it as well. He had similar sentiments about this entire thing. Hajime's route of thought was that basically, if all of them came out of this with cheat powers, then what difference would it make if one or two of them left to just do their own thing rather than fight for things they didn't know nor believe in?

And even though the tones of the boy's were hushed, a glance forward from them revealed Ishtar had been glancing back, if only for a moment, and right at them to boot. And all it did was reaffirm he'd decided to watch Enshin closely, and now perhaps Hajime had found himself on that watch list.

"Well I get why you're suspicious of him."

"Let's keep that on file."

Hajime nodded as Enshin put his headphones back on. And after a short time more, they came to the throne room at last, a grand red carpet leading to a large, lavish golden throne. Standing before that throne, watching Ishtar and the students approach, was a middle aged man with a solemn aura dignity, giving off the air of a king by presence alone. Next to the man was a woman who was with no doubts the queen, and next to her a boy and girl, both with blonde hair and blue eyes. The boy appeared the younger of the two, likely barely ten years old, while the girl looked older, perhaps fourteen or so. The left side of the carpet was lined with soldiers, and the right civil officers, probably. All around there were thirty people in the room in total.

Enshin didn't even look surprised as Ishtar broke from the group and stood next to the king, who then took the priests hand and kissed the back of it in that classic move that showed "God" definitely ran everything. And so came the flurry of self-introductions. The king was Eliheid S. B. Heiligh, his wife Luluaria. The prince's name Lundel, and the princess's name Liliana.

And following the royals were all kinds of officials from the knight captain, prime minister, so on and so forth. It got _really _tiring after a while and Enshin really wanted to leave the room and find a place to sleep for a bit. After all of that then came a grand feast, the good surprisingly not much different from Western food back on Earth by comparison. Enshin couldn't help but be amused that Lundel spent most of the time talking with Kaori, the small boy clearly smitten with the class's "goddess" right from the get go. Childish puppy love, the kind where even the more vitriolic class members couldn't be mad at the kid. Not like it would go anywhere after all.

And as if only to exhaust Enshin _more, _once the meal was done they were all introduced to their soon to be instructors, all experiences soldiers and even the captain of the knight captain himself. They were pulling out all of the stops to greet these "heroes" and give them the best chances possibly to become great. After _that _they were then all lead to individual rooms, and they were as lavish as everything else. Enshin couldn't help but slap a hand to his forehead.

But, at least the bed was comfortable. His phone was close to dying now as well, barely any battery life left, and it wasn't like even if he _had _his charger he'd be able to use it. But, with the device waning, he at least figured it'd be worth doing something with it before it died… why not a journal entry?

* * *

_I have seriously never done this before, ever, in my life. I'm only making this entry on my phone because I'm too damn tired to pull out a pen and write something. Don't care about the date, don't care about the time. This is all for posterity here. This is the first and probably last log on this device by Kakumei Enshin. Me and my entire class have been transported to another world called Tortus, supposedly by a divine being called Ehit._

_They want us to be their saviors, the heroes who fight against the demonic threat and save their world from evil. But I don't buy it for some reason. This all feels too well set up, to properly thought out, _too well prepared, _too merely be something the head priest Ishtar had received by divine revelation recently. I doubt it'll be that terrible, in all honesty… but I don't trust that priest in the slightest at the least. That much is where I stand right now. But the other problem is we still barely know anything about this world besides what we were told by him… and who knows how biased that guy's views actually are?_

_Tomorrow is when things really start… I'll just have to see where things go from there. Now my other main question is this: Why did I see a red dragon when we were transported?_


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Above Exceptional**

Enshin felt nearly zoned out as the morning began. It felt almost dreamlike how it all began. He'd been woken up by a palace servant who'd brought him clothes to replace his uniform, been escorted along with the other students to eat a grand breakfast, and then from there they were all taken to a large hall with all kinds of things set up for training. It would probably become familiar with enough time though, but for the time being it was still weird since it was totally against the normal routine of life he was used to before now.

It was there they were formally introduced to the Knight Captain, Meld Loggins, a gruff but kind looking man who looked over all of the teenagers, plus teacher, with hope in his eyes at the potential they could possibly hold. Enshin and Hajime, who by instinct had basically stuck himself to the class maverick, wondered if having such a high ranking officer training a bunch of random teenagers was a good idea, but the two also figured it would look bad on the kingdom _not _to give the best they could to aid "God's Chosen" in whatever they could.

That and the man certainly seemed alright with the idea, heartily laughing and saying "Besides it gives me an excuse to shove all the paperwork to my vice-captain!" in such a tone it actually greatly lightened the mood. He also had some servants hand peculiar items to all of them, small metal plates twelve centimeters long and seven centimeters wide, explaining that they were called Status Plates.

"Does everyone have a Plate? As the name suggests what these items do is display your personal status, things like your name, age, what have you. They're simple but incredibly useful for doing things like seeing your personal strength and abilities, and they work as a great form of identification. You'll be fine even if you get lost so long as you have one, so keep a tight hold on it alright?" The man had quite the informal but friendly way of speaking, and Enshin appreciated it since it put him at ease when compared to the pope, who he still didn't feel like putting any form of trust in. When someone asked why it is Meld was so casual, the man just gave a hearty laugh again. "Well that's because we'll be comrades in arms soon! No point in being stiff with one another right? Feel free to be casual with the other knights as well, they'll treat you all the same way, so don't worry about it."

"He says to the crowd of Japanese kids." Enshin kept the playfully sarcastic remark just quiet enough only Hajime would've heard it, and it prompted a chuckle from the other boy. True to the remark, the teenagers were used to a society where being stiffly polite to one's elders was the norm, so of course many would find it strange to speak so casually with someone like Meld, especially since by their standards it'd feel awkward for an older person to show them respect, but someone with a friendly personality like Meld at least felt more welcoming to them.

"So, if you turn those Plates over, you'll see they each have a magic circle on the back. Use the needles we passed out to prick your finger and put just a bit of blood onto that circle. That'll infuse the Plate with your mana and register you as its owner. From there, just say "Open Status" and you'll see your current stats and abilities. And don't bother asking me how it works, I'm not that good with magical stuff, and these things are Artifacts from ages ago."

"Artifacts?" Enshin and Kouki spoke at the same time. Enshin immediately made the connection though, as that word felt hardly unfamiliar to him, even in context to the situation. RPGs had a habit of giving fancy "ancient" sounding names to old magical items or technology after all.

"Artifacts are magical items from older societies from much older times." And Meld smoothly shifted into explaining the term. "We don't have the means to make them ourselves, and most Artifacts are coveted national treasures only the most trusted people in the kingdoms are allowed to own. But these Status Plates are so numerous even your average citizen owns one, since as said they make for handy identification. Plus, the artifact that makes these things still exists, and the Church distributes new ones every year under strict supervision. These ones are part of this year's batch, so lucky you guys right?"

All of the students nodded in response, some even mumbling about how cool they thought it was to be getting brand new magic items. Some were a bit hesitant about it while others didn't hesitate to prick their fingers with the needles they'd been given. Enshin was one of the ones who didn't hesitate as a momentary prick didn't bother him, and he quickly dashed his fingertip on his Plate's circle before putting the finger into his mouth, grumbling a bit as the iron-like taste of his blood hit his tongue.

And like it was being dyed in ink, the steely plate changed color in his hands, changing to a bright shade of crimson that oddly pulsed and gave off a faint sheen when he angled it in the light. Glancing over, Enshin saw that Hajime's plate had turned sky blue, and the others were all exclaiming as their plates all changed into a variety of other colors. What Enshin wondered was why his seemed so strong, as the others were all solid colors, yet his had that strange shifting effect, the crimson shade seeming to brighten and dim like a flame.

"The color the Plates change to be the color of your mana. Putting your blood onto the Plate infuses it with your information, and that's why it's so handy for identifying people, as the plate's color and the owner's mana are always the same color." Meld explained, prompting hums from all the others.

"_So that means my mana is this weird flame-like crimson color. And Hajime's is sky-blue." _Glancing around, Enshin took in the variety of other colors, but focused more on the class's big four: Kouki's was, to no surprise at all, pure white without any kind of other shade to mar it. Ryuutarou's dark green, Kaori's light purple, and Shizuku's a deep shade of specked blue.

"Now I know you're all impressed, but don't go forgetting to check your stats now!" Meld smiled wryly as he brought that up. All of the students were brought out of their awing, and all began uttering the phrase to activate the plates in turn. Enshin turned his gaze to his plate as he activated it, and what he saw was…

* * *

_Enshin Kakumei, Age: 17, Male, Level: 1  
Job: Gunslinger  
Strength: 300  
Vitality: 300  
Defense: 300  
Agility: 250  
Magic: 400  
Magic Defense: 350  
Skills: Weaponsmithing (Gunsmithing) – Weapon Mastery (Sword Proficiency, Firearm Proficiency) – Elemental Affinity (Fire Elemental Proficiency, Dark Elemental Proficiency) – Elemental Resistance (Fire Elemental Resistance, Dark Elemental Resistance) – Heart of Fire – Increased Recovery (Health and Mana) – Flash Step – Eagle Eye – Status Resistance – Detect Presence – Detect Magic – Appraisal – Language Comprehension_

* * *

All of the above information. Enshin stared at the stats and _long _list of skills in a bit of bafflement. He currently though had nothing to compare too so he had no idea if these statistics were average or exceptional. What confused him even _more _was how two Skills seemed, oddly, smudged out on the Plate. He couldn't make out what these two skills were, but they stood there as odd marks nonetheless.

"Geh?!" Hajime's sudden reaction made Enshin look over, and he had almost the same reaction to seeing what his friend's plate had on it, that being…

* * *

_Hajime Nagumo, Age: 17, Male, Level: 1  
Job: Synergist  
Strength: 10  
Vitality: 10  
Defense: 10  
Agility: 10  
Magic: 10  
Magic Defense: 10  
Skills: Transmute – Language Comprehension_

* * *

By comparison, not only pitifully low stats, but also a painful lack of any Skills to speak of. Both boys had about the same reaction to seeing each other's Plates, the thought of "What kind of luck do you have?!" though obviously with different connotations behind them. Everyone else was of course just as absorbed in looking at their stats, those who made up closer groups than others sharing between each other with enthusiasm, all no doubt having gotten some quite good things for themselves. Seeing the situation, Meld clapped his hands to get their attention and continue speaking.

"Everyone get a good look at your stats? If so then let me explain from the top: First we have your level, see it? It's on the same line as your name. That increases as your stats do, and the limit for one's level is 100, which means you'll have reached your limits as a human being once you hit that point. This means your level shows just how much of your potential you've realized, and hitting 100 means you've fully realized your true capabilities as far as they can reach. Very few people in the world have ever reached that point however."

So that affirmed to Enshin and Hajime it wasn't quite like a game since it was the other way around than how mechanics usually went.

"Your stats will naturally increase as you train, and you're also capable of using magic or magical items. And those with a high magic stat will naturally grow faster than others. It's not clear why but we assume it's because the amount of mana a person has can assist in their growth. Now later on you'll all get to choose some items and gear that can fit your stats, our entire treasury of expertly crafted weapons, armor, and even Artifacts will be yours to choose from! You're the heroes who are going to save our kingdom after all!" And that explanation meant just defeating a monster wouldn't magically increase your stats, one would have to do it the old-fashioned way and actually improve your abilities and skills through good hard training.

Not a thing Enshin, who was quite athletic, was opposed too.

"Next, see that little box under your name? That holds your Job in it, and is directly linked to your Skills box at the bottom. Put simply your Job refers to your aptitude and helps determine what kind of skills you can learn as you grow. Now not everyone possesses a Job, and they're divided up into two categories: Combat Based and Non-Combat Based. Only one in every thousand or ten thousand people have a Combat Job, and while Non-Combat Jobs are _also _rare, the rate is a lot less… well, _rare _simply put, with about every one in a hundred people having a Non-Combat Job. Some are even common enough that it's one in ten. There's plenty of people who have Non-Combat Jobs that work well for Production, in fact they make up some of the finest craftspeople around!"

So by that assumption that would mean Hajime's "Synergist" Job was one of these far more common Non-Combat crafting jobs, as by his usual summations from game experience that would mean the job had to do with synergizing, and with a skill named Transmute it would mean Hajime could likely manipulate materials with ease by mere magical input. When one put thought into it that could actually have some great combative applications. And yet Enshin had "Gunslinger" as his Job, and just from looking around it would be readily apparent to one, what with the plate-mail clad, sword and spear wielding knights, it didn't seem like there was any kind of firearm in sight, much less any sign such weapons even existed in this world.

Hajime broke out into a smile for a bit, likely thinking along the lines of _"Well of course I'd have a Job", _probably thinking to how Ishtar said that their world was stronger than Tortus, so perhaps the idea of having a special talent made Hajime feel a bit better. But, that smile vanished into a cold sweat quite quickly with Meld's next description.

"Now… well, your stats as just what they say. The average range for most ordinary people is about 1-10. But you're all heroes, so I'm sure you'll have stats way higher than that! I'm a bit jealous of you lucky kids. Oh, and be sure to report your stats to me, I'll be able to help streamline your training if I have a clear idea of what each of you is capable of."

"_So wait… stats average at 10 at level 1 in most cases… so that means Hajime's stats are totally flat average… but if that's the average then does that mean mine are like crazy high?! Dammit, do I actually need to compare with Kouki to be extra sure? Knowing that idiot he's probably got a Job like "Hero" or something, and the stats to go with it too!" _Enshin put a hand to his head as he gave a small grumble, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Hajime breaking into a cold sweat, no doubt also realizing the same thing about his own stats and having some dread crawl over him. But his look seemed ever so slightly hopeful. No doubt he was thinking maybe Enshin was some kind of exception and that everyone started out perhaps the same or near the same, one more sliver of hope for the boy Enshin could not blame him for wanting to cling to.

Kouki was of course the first of the class to step up and show Meld his Plate, and Enshin made sure to listen in as Meld listed off all the numbers and abilities, and he was even to catch sight of the Plate itself, which said as such…

* * *

_Kouki Amanogawa, Age: 17, Male, Level: 1  
Job: Hero  
Strength: 100  
Vitality: 100  
Defense: 100  
Agility: 100  
Magic: 100  
Magic Defense: 100  
Skills: Elemental Affinity – Elemental Resistance – Physical Resistance – Advanced Sorcery – Swordsmanship – Herculean Strength – Armor Proficiency – Foresight – Increased Mana Recovery – Detect Presence – Detect Magic – Limit Break – Language Comprehension_

* * *

Had Hajime _not _already seen Enshin's even _more _broken looking stats and skills, he would've called Kouki the embodiment of "Cheat Skills", but there _was _their clearly different Jobs to take into account… but then it also seemed obvious that stats ruled all here. Enshin actually started sweating a bit himself after he saw the sheer disparity that now existed between him and Kouki in their raw abilities these Plates showed them. Though another part of him felt a bit smug about it, and Hajime had the same feeling.

"_It will not end well if some of these people find out the difference between us is in my favor by miles." _Enshin also felt a twitch in an eye as he felt the possible future death glares that could be sent his way. He had to think of some way to keep this under wraps without giving the less savory ones an excuse to try and flip the power dynamic around either. Because he knew _for sure _there was some people here who would just _love _the chance to get back at him for previous fights that didn't go their way.

Meld however, was _far _more enthusiastic as he saw Kouki's stats.

"Wow, triple digit stats and you're only Level 1! Talk about impressive! Not only that, most people only get two or three skills at this level! You're way beyond normal. Talk about a reliable hero!" Meld's praise got Kouki to give an awkward chuckle and put a hand behind his head in a classic example of a protagonist move. "My own level is 62, and my stats are all in the 300 range as well. I'm one of the strongest humans around, though there's a few guys out there that are even stronger than that. Still kid, if your stats are like that then it means your growth rate should be just as impressive. You may overtake me in no time!"

"_Huh… so that means I'm around his power level out of the gate then." _Enshin looked back at his Plate as he heard that, giving a hum. Enshin wouldn't go and say he was exactly a genius but he _did _have a sharp mind on his side and was quite good at analytics, he didn't know how to disassemble, clean, and reassemble a modern firearm in a short time for nothing (one of the perks of a foreigner grandfather who was also a gun nut and collected out of service surplus units for a hobby, harder to do in Japan than one would think). And going by what Meld said of a high magic stat also equating to a high growth rate, his stat of 400 would mean his growth rate would potentially be astronomically quick. _"Maybe this has something to do with what happened when we transported… seeing that dragon… that couldn't have just been some random vision, could it? I have felt a bit weird since we arrived too."_

And in another explanation that was given to them, Skills were effectively the innate talents a person was born with. Some spent their entire lives polishing their talents in order to acquire a new skill, some got them by breaking their own limits in a certain field. In the simplest of terms it was that trick of being able to suddenly increase your ability in a field you may have previously been struggling in, and to do so rapidly.

For Hajime, Enshin and Kouki had pretty much set the bar. The teenager wanted to hope the two class oddities were just that, the special oddities, but, to his ever increasing worry, _everyone _had stats that not only well exceeded the average line, but also Skills that by all means, while not as numerous, just as worthy of being called "cheats", and on top of that not a single other person lacked a combat based job.

Enshin looked at Hajime as the boy's stiff smile grew steadily into a displeased frown, the other boy likely putting the pieces together about his standing in the group. Enshin pat Hajime on the back before stepping up to Meld himself, though before he showed the man his Plate, he took a moment.

"So uh, Meld, can I ask you something?" Enshin spoke in a hushed tone, Meld seeming a bit confused. "Look uh, to be entirely straight with you there's only a handful of people here who actually _like _me that much. I'm sorta the class maverick, unintentionally as it can be at times. So, well… can we keep my stats between you and me?"

"Oh come on, they can't be that bad if everyone else is so exceptional! What is there to worry about?" Meld's statement was earnest, and Enshin awkwardly chuckled. The man certainly had a way of drawing one in, that was for sure.

"See, it's not that they're low… just, look for yourself. And promise me you won't flip out. Please?"

"Alright, but really what is there to… worry… about…" Meld's voice trailed off as Enshin handed the man his plate. Meld quite quickly went totally rigid. It wasn't just the pulsing nature of the Plate's color that caught the man off guard, but just as Enshin had predicted, seeing the numbers that were present had seemingly sent the man into complete shock. For a moment Enshin worried the man might have gone comatose, but Meld quickly righted himself and cleared his throat, gesturing for Enshin to lean in a bit, to the curiosity of many of the other students since now even the captain was speaking quietly. "Boy… Enshin, yes? Not only is your Job one I've never even heard of before, but these stats they are, to be entirely frank, inhuman! Your friend who's the Hero? That I can understand, but this is-this is completely unprecedented! I mean, it's amazing, you being so powerful is no doubt extremely fortunate, but…"

"Yeah look I'm kinda just as confused as you." Enshin replied, his whisper almost a hiss.

"Could something have gone wrong during the transport process? Something might have taken a hold of you."

"Well… it's… hard to explain. Maybe?" Enshin sighed and just took a breath. "Look I can tell you later, but let's just make some kind of excuse yeah? First off… does this world have guns?"

"What's a gun?"

"That's a no. Okay, alright then. Look just like… say my stats are, I dunno, high but not like, near Kouki's level. I can take above average stats and a special class. But like, just let them think he's stronger than me alright?"

"Are you sure?"

"Completely. 100 percent. Unmovable as a mountain."

"Alright." Meld and Enshin moved away from their suspicious whispering, and the man cleared his throat before speaking fully again. "Well you've got a good setup there young man! Just below the Hero in terms of ability, a Job I've never seen before, and you've got a decent number of Skills too! I'm glad to know there's such reliable folk here."

Enshin gave the captain a thumbs up for the save as he took his Plate back. While there were those who grumbled about learning Enshin stood at the upper curve of the group's power, it wasn't nearly as bad as it likely would've been had they instead heard he was stronger than Kouki. Hajime gave Enshin a silent question as he returned to their spot at the back, immediately nodding when Enshin put a finger to his lips. He didn't need much more to understand Enshin was planning to keep his true abilities under lock and key for the time being for the sake of the class's morale.

"_You know what, right now I am _really _glad I'm actually friends with him." _Hajime had that thankful thought, for once thinking on the bright side about this situation. Then the moment he'd been dreading finally came, and Hajime gave a cautious thumbs up to Enshin before striding forward to give Meld a look at his own Plate.

As Hajime, and now Enshin too, had been dreading, Meld's pleased as punch attitude took another blow when he saw Hajime's plates. The man rubbed his eyes, likely thinking something like "Did I see that right?" before checking again, even rapping it with his fingers _just _to make sure it wasn't for some reason acting up, and shining light on it as well to be _extra _sure. After a while more of staring at the Plate and mulling over it, Meld, with a complicated expression, returned the item to Hajime.

"Hmm… well how do I put this?" Meld put a hand to his chin as he hummed, and Hajime made an uncomfortable sound. "A Synergist is basically like a blacksmith. It might come in handy if you plan on opening a smithy, but otherwise…" the explanation was poor, but it was enough to get the point across to the entire class.

"Knew it."Enshin sighed as he already saw a few, particularly Hiyama and his lot, look absolutely _giddy _at hearing Hajime didn't have a Combat Job. They'd likely immediately go to brush it aside and cry out a lack of usefulness because what good would a crafter do in a fight? It was also at this point Enshin was really feeling like he hated the conditioned way in which people his age behaved towards outliers. But hey, he was friends with Hajime for a reason. He wasn't about to let his butt fall into the frying pan now.

"Hey Nagumo!" And as he expected, Hiyama immediately started jeering. "Don't tell me you seriously got a Non-Combat Job? What use is some blacksmith gonna be when fighting monsters huh?"

"Oh I dunno a blacksmith sounds extremely useful dipshit." Enshin was quick to snap back, Hiyama flinching at the intentionally harsh way Enshin said it. "Get your head out of your ass long enough to think about it yeah? A group of only combat classes makes for one helluva bad set up. Besides, if one of us is a crafter won't that be a boon for us? Who knows, Hajime may have the potential to be the best damn Synergist this world has seen and make some totally OPAF gear for us to use to make this easier! You think about _that _or you too busy trying to look cool in front of Shirasaki like a total dumbass?"

Hiyama didn't even attempt to reply to Enshin's ever blunt manner of laying it out straight. The brusqueness of the statement or even some of their own dislike for Enshin wasn't enough to stop many of the students from snickering about the complete shutdown they'd just witnessed, and Enshin's smug expression sold it as Hiyama just grumbled to himself and kicked his foot, his cronies not even attempting to save face for their leader either.

"He does have a point." Meld said, nodding along. "Just because your job is, well, to be fair quite common, and even with average stats you could still have potential, Hajime. Perhaps your potential simply doesn't lie within fighting like your classmates. A supporter isn't always a bad thing after all."

"I do think that Kakumei-kun is quite right! Granted his language could have been better." And it was then Aiko who spoke up next, the diminutive teacher looking at Enshin with a scolding look, and he just glanced to the side as he pursed his lips. She then went up to Hajime and put her hands to her hips. "You don't need to fight to be useful, Nagumo-kun. And if it helps, I don't have a Combat Job or very good stats either! Here, look at my Plate!"

* * *

_Aiko Hatayama, Age: 25, Female, Level: 1  
Job: Farmer  
Strength: 5  
Vitality: 10  
Defense: 10  
Agility: 5  
Magic: 100  
Magic Defense: 10  
Skills: Soil Management – Soil Restoration – Large Scale Cultivation – Enhanced Fertilization – Selective Breeding – Plant Appraisal – Fertilizer Production – Mixed Breeding – Auto Harvesting – Fermentation Proficiency – Wide-area Temperature Control – Farming Barrier – Fertile Rain – Language Comprehension_

* * *

"Uh… Sensei, I hate to break it to you but uhm… you're broken in an entirely different way." Enshin said, Aiko looking up at him in surprise as he cleared his throat. "Plus, your magic is as high as Kouki's to boot. But I mean hey, you could make a hell of a fortune starting a farm here that's for sure."

"Ehhh?! N-Nagumo-kun, did I do something wrong?!" Aiko, ever trying to make sure her students were fine, immediately turned to Hajime, who just raised his hands up.

While sure he was definitely shocked that even if Aiko had overall lower or similar stats than him, with that sole exception of her magical ability, the blow _was _at least lessened by Enshin keeping anybody from trying to go at him because of his average stats, plus the stated idea he could be better off working as a crafter and making powerful gear actually sounded like a bit of fun. Plus if he could stay out of combat, maybe it _would _work in his favor.

Aiko's Job was certainly beyond useful too, seemingly moreso than Hajime's Synergist, because after all, an army marches on its stomach. But neither is an army successful if their equipment falls apart on them either, and self-care can only take one so far as well. Sure, being utterly commonplace felt like a bummer but when Hajime put that kind of thought to it, it at least made him feel better about the situation rather than just utterly loathe the position he was in.

But it brought back to mind this mystery that now surrounded Enshin, only known by Hajime and Meld. It wasn't like he had some kind of special "Hero" Job like Kouki. In more modern RPGs Gunslinger was just as normal a class as any other, in some cases perhaps it was a variant of Warrior that still specialized in melee weapons but branched out into special skills with firearms, as such seemed to be the case for Enshin, or with other cases being a pure breed of marksman… so the question was, why is it his stats were so astronomical? And what was the meaning behind those Skills that appeared as smudges on the Plate?

"Are your stats _really _just below Kouki's or are you playing something off?" Enshin flinched when Shizuku appeared behind him. The single bane he knew here was that if there was one person who could see through him, it was Shizuku. Perhaps it was the cost of them being old friends, because not even his best poker face fooled the astute girl. "Enshin, was there something weird with your status?"

"No, it's perfectly fine, and just as Meld said, I swear." Enshin said, though Shizuku didn't look convinced at all. "Just take my word for it please!"

"Hah, alright then." Shizuku relented and Enshin pumped a fist in his mind at averting such a potential crisis. He definitely wouldn't be able to keep the secret for long, but at least he could keep it on the downlow. What followed next immediately sent Enshin's instincts to full livewire. A loud clap sounded, and next Enshin knew, his hand had caught a wooden sword Shizuku had produced, the girl smirking at the boy as he looked at the reactionary result that had happened on pure instinct.

"Hehehe… guess I haven't gotten dull." Enshin released the wooden sword and shook his hand, Shizuku pulling the practice weapon back and putting it across her shoulder. "Oi! Can someone throw me one too? I just got challenged over here!"

Enshin caught the wooden sword that got thrown at him easily, flipping it around just with his fingers into a proper hold. The new lightness in his body was still different, but it also brought with it a new sense of strength as well, and he was finally starting to process these changes his new abilities were causing. Details seemed easier for him to spot without much effort, and he could even feel where the people he couldn't see were in the space around them. A small smirk came to Enshin's face as he and Shizuku were given a berth to spar in, the slam of their wooden swords echoing through the air.

"_You know what, I think I may be able to enjoy myself here!"_


	4. Chapter 3

From Maverick to Hero

**Chapter 3: Paradigm Shift**

"Alright, here's the diagrams I promised ya'!

Enshin set down a stack of several papers he'd hauled with him. It had been a few days since the transported students had begun their training, and by his own request Enshin had been introduced to the kingdom's best smiths, currently with the three men and Hajime in the shop of the one who was local to the royal capital. This idea of Enshin's was twofold: One reason was because he wanted to learn more about this world, and had already been dedicating time to reading up on the history and geography in the royal library, and considering his newfound skills learning form professional artisans about crafting methods seemed like the best method to help improve as well.

The second had to do with Hajime. Combat training wouldn't help Hajime that much besides simply teaching him how to fight, but for getting stronger? It was apparent the boy would need something more. And as it happened all three of the smiths who'd they'd been introduced too were also Synergists like him, meaning they were all people Hajime could learn form in order to refine his Transmutation ability. All in all, it seemed like a solid plan.

"Alright kid lemme see… these are for those "firearm" things you talked about yeah?" The local smith, a fittingly well built and gruff man named Grell Maltris, took one of the papers and rolled it open as Enshin nodded, scanning over the diagram as he also stroked a hand over his scraggly beard. "Interesting… the mechanism is surprisingly simple. And you're saying if this thing works it can fire a tiny ball of metal fast enough to punch through a suit of armor?"

"Well, not with a handgun anyway. A rifle, sure as hell." Enshin nodded as he took the paper and pointed to it. The diagram was of a flintlock pistol like from older times on Earth. Enshin figured he would have to start simple when it came to his Weaponsmithing skill if he were to eventually start making more complex mechanics, so starting from the basic flintlock action seemed like the safest bet for him.

"How would that even work? What would even propel the "bullet" you mentioned?" Another of the smiths asked, looking over another diagram that was for a rifle.

"That's why I asked about any minerals you all knew of that could be ignited." Enshin said, sitting down on a crate and folding his legs. "In our world a country called China discovered how to use a blend of different minerals to create an ignitable powder, called black powder or gunpowder nowadays. It's made of a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter. Aside from being used as a firearm propellant it's also used as blasting powder for things like mining in order to quickly clear areas out to say, make a quarry. Like a lot of things China created around the same time they discovered it's use, it was originally for medicinal reasons since China was filled with crazies who did things like drink mercury hoping it'd grant them immortality, and like a lot of things of that nature, someone figured out it'd be useful in combat not long after."

"And are these weapons here still widely used in your world?" The third smith asked, already sounding incredibly impressed by what he was seeing. And the men looked surprised when Enshin shook his head.

"Aside from things like war reenactments or target shooting, gunpowder firearms aren't used militarily anymore. It's mostly because we've found stronger and more efficient ignitable minerals that produce more force. While I'd like to find something like that here in Tortus starting from here feels like the best idea for now. But like you guessed, even these kinds of firearms pack enough of a punch to get through plate armor, as long as you're close enough anyway. The curve does a lot to help deflection. But, it was enough that for a good few centuries after firearms became widely used, armies didn't even bother wearing armor of any kind because it didn't serve a purpose anymore."

"Though it's not like we don't have armor anymore despite it." Hajime then spoke up, looking away from some of the tools and weapons he'd been examining. "It was more a matter of lacking the kind of technology to make something resistant to ballistic weapons that wouldn't, well, result in a guy's ribcage getting smashed in by a smaller arm, but nowadays in our world we've managed to develop body armors that can stop most kinds of small arms fire with minimal injury to the wearer. Granted it's still not perfect and bigger kinds of guns can outright ignore the armor as a whole anyway. Which soldiers don't really _use _in combat of course."

"Still, if our soldiers had things like this it would definitely help us even the odds against the demons on our own front." Grell hummed as he looked the rifle diagram over, then setting it down. "As for those ignitable minerals you asked about, we've obviously got coal for burning in our forges, plus sulfur isn't hard to come by either. There are some minerals out there that when ignited produce pretty powerful explosions when used, but as for saltpeter… why would you mix that in? I mean it's a handy fire starter I'll give you that much."

"Well it's also the main ingredient for gunpowder. You don't actually use that much coal and sulfur in it. The idea is that when you have the powder packed into a tight space, since the gas that would be made by the ignition takes up more space than the powder, it propels the bullet out of the gun." Enshin hopped down from his seat, and the elder man nodded as he stroked his beard again.

"Ah so it's just simple physics eh? Hah, and people say magic is all we need to do better than bows. Alright lads let's start getting things together! The kid and I will start putting the weapon together. Hajime, you go with these two and get some of those minerals yeah? The market should have some there if you look, and we'll show ya how to use Transmutation to easily powder them up."

"Got it!"

With that call, work immediately began. While Enshin didn't have Transmutation himself, he'd found out through a bit of trial and error after meeting Grell that his Weaponsmithing skill was something of an approximation to it, simply specialized when it came to the production of weapons. In order to make things as precise as they could, Enshin and Grell both worked on producing the necessary mechanical parts for the flintlock, keeping their eyes on the diagram as they kept producing pieces until both found ones that felt satisfactory, a mark of clear difference in skills being that Grell's produced components were of a much finer qualities than Enshin's, but the differences were minor no doubt thanks to the specialized nature of the skills Enshin was using for it.

Hajime and the other two smiths had returned and gotten to work trying to make a proper mixture for working gunpowder while that process was going on, which meant that _very _quickly the room was being filled with the sounds of random explosions of various intensities and soot, Hajime using his own knowledge about the matter to help approximate whether or not the mixtures were at a desirable level, while also using his Transmutation to shape bits of iron into rudimentary bullets that would work with a flintlock style of gun, since Enshin's diagrams clearly called to rifle the barrels, thus a simple iron ball wouldn't be the kind of bullet used.

After quite a few hours of this trial and error processing, the crew of crafters finally produced a pair of flintlock pistols exactly to the diagrams they had, one with parts from Enshin and the other from Grell, and with a powder mixture Hajime had decided was good enough to test with. Visually the guns were quite simple, with rudimentary wooden bodies meant purely for the sake of function over form, and simple, unembellished components, more a simple proof of concept design rather than something meant to be strut around with for looks. Enshin made sure to demonstrate how a flintlock was loaded as he poured the powder mixture into the barrel and then packed the bullet into it, to the analytic eyes of the smiths. With a bit of distance made also to the outside yard of the shop, they also set up a few things of plate armor set up on dummies, and by the suggestion of the boys the targets were set up in front of a sturdy stone wall, since they knew well enough the accuracy of a flintlock wasn't the greatest, plus the risk of the bullet just ricocheting off of the armor thanks to its curve in the case of a glancing shot. And to also mitigate the risks to themselves, they also stood behind a barrier of bags they'd pulled out of the shop.

"Alright, everyone good and clear?" Enshin, who was using his headphones as a general approximation for ear protection and smith's goggles for eye covers, checked with the other four as they stood back and all gave thumbs ups to him. "Alright then, let's test it out."

Enshin's thumb pulled back the hammer of the gun, fitted with a piece of good flint from the shop itself. The general mechanism for a flintlock was the flint tipped hammer to strike past the frizzen, a piece of metal that flipped up as the hammer fell to allow the flint to produce sparks and then strike the priming powder located in the firing pan beneath it, and then use that to ignite the powder packed in the barrel in order to fire by sending the sparks through a small vent in the pan. The hours spent trying to get it right had been one hell of a pain. Enshin made sure to wait since he knew this style of gun came with natural problems like potential misfiring, though he figured that he hopefully wouldn't have that problem.

One could feel the anticipation in the air as Enshin made sure he was steady enough. The smiths in particularly seemed almost giddy to see if this fantastical new weapon would operate exactly as expected. It was almost a minute before Enshin finally nodded, his finger pressing on the trigger as his breath exited his mouth.

_CRACK!_

The sound of the explosion from the gun was loud enough one could be sure almost everyone in town could hear it. Enshin felt the gun kick up in his hand as it fired, also coming with a large burst of white smoke. And then an even louder pinging sound rang through the air as the fired bullet slammed into the first of the plate dummies. But, rather than say, punch through the armor, the bullet bounced right off, but the dent was sizable enough to be noticeable with complete ease. Something like that would still cause a notable degree of injury, if not be lethal considering the sizable dent was right in the center of the plate.

It was silent as they all took the sight in before the teenagers and men began loudly cheering. Enshin and Hajime slapped a high five as the smiths then began looking the successfully fired gun over. The teenagers had just officially introduced working firearms to Tortus, and this was only a stepping stone from this point.

"Talk about a punch!" Grell gave a hearty laugh as he pulled the plate off of the dummy and looked it over, humming as his rough fingers ran over the dent, particularly the deeper section where the bullet had impacted. "It may not have pierced like a good arrowhead, but a dent like this would still hurt something fierce! And this is just from a non-magical weapon! How far away can you shoot that thing from anyway? This was about the average range for a soldier's bow."

"Hmm… well flintlocks like this tend to have a range as good as about forty-five meters, but that's if you're say, aiming from a distance. But if you're in the middle of a fight then that'll drop to around like eh… only a few meters at best. They're not super effective in the heat of it since they take a while to reload as well, which is why they were often used alongside swords or other weapons too. An early tactic when they were first introduced was to just rush an enemy with a sword or spear, and then fire as close as possible if not outright touching the enemy. That usually made sure there wouldn't be a loss of speed, so the shot could punch right through." As Enshin spoke he also twirled the pistol on his index finger, finding the act a lot easier than it would otherwise be before now. "A rifle has around twice the range as a pistol thanks to the length of the barrel, so even if the bullet is around the same size, the fact it'll be going a lot faster means it'll just downright laugh at any kind of armor, even with layers. Plus, the kind of bullet and how fast it moves can change a lot. Sad to say but flintlocks are slow compared to what we've made in our world."

"Well that's just basic physics. If it's going faster, then of course it'll get through easier. I've seen a piece of good quality plate made of some of the best steel around get totally smashed by a lance when the horse was going at full gallop." Said one of the other smiths.

"Plus not like your typical soldier's armor is going to be made of good quality metal. It'll be good enough to hold up as long as need be, but also needs to be made quickly." Another said, nods going around. The quality of the metal would definitely be a factor. Enshin and Hajime were also positive any "fantasy" materials they were bound to come across would produce vastly different results based on how it was dealt with.

"But what we're going to try and aim for is something a bit more modern." Hajime said. "Now that we've proven we can replicate these and produce them, plus make it work, if we can it'd be a big help if we could produce something more like the firearms used in our world currently. Like Enshin said earlier, we don't use gunpowder that often and these kinds of guns aren't that reliant in the heat of a fight. So, is there any if at all kind of mineral you guys know about that could work as a stronger propellant?"

"A mineral that's ignitable and has enough force to be stronger than _this _eh?" Grell stroked his beard as he gave a thought to that, mulling over what he knew. The man was one of the finest smiths in the kingdom, he'd worked with all kinds of materials of every quality, from the lowest quality hunk of iron to the greatest azanthium ore, an ultra-hard but lightweight material that was rare to find in Tortus. And then the man made a hum like a lightbulb just went off. "Blastrock!"

"Eh?" Both Enshin and Hajime tilted their heads as they made similar sounds.

"What you mentioned earlier got my mind tickin' when we were talking about this gunpowder stuff, and I can't _believe _it slipped my mind! Give me a second, I think I've got some in the shop I can show you." Grell went back inside for a few moments, coming out a bit later and chuckling to himself, showing the boys a black stone with a rather rough surface to it. "This here is a chunk of the stuff! Blastrock is a nifty little ore that basically does a bunch of what you said: Explodes when ignited or hit with enough impact in a confined space, and packs enough punch to do some big damage! If you're looking for something to give those bullets some more oomph, we can use a powder made of this stuff to do it! Let's grind some up and do a test shot!"

After that process was done, and just to be safe Enshin carefully handled the Blastrock powder at the advice of Grell, who wisely suggested for the sake of potential safety they do this test with enough Blastrock powder to be about half the amount of gunpowder they used, it was another silent bit of anticipating as Enshin took aim at the next target down the range. It was also about now he actually noticed it, how it was like he could sense the small shifts in the air that could affect how his bullet flew, automatically adjusting his aim by the slightest margin to compensate for it, feeling as if the gun in his hand had turned into an extension of his whole limb. Perhaps this was his newfound abilities as a Gunslinger kicking in, influencing his movements to naturally adjust to the use of the weapon.

Except instead of firing he stopped and lowered the gun, giving a sigh. To the obvious confusion of the smiths.

"We should test this in a different way." Enshin held the gun up, Hajime looking like he'd also just realized it. "We don't know how well the barrel will be able to handle the pressure of this blastrock amount, since it's about the same as how much gunpowder was used. Better to be safe than sorry, right?"

"Well then how will we do that?" Grell asked, Enshin smirking.

"Simple, a stand!"

And with that, quickly as they could the men set up a wooden stand to put the gun on. A simple wire had been looped to the trigger, which Enshin was holding as he was also ducked behind the barrier with Hajime and the smiths. On a three count, Enshin yanked the wire to fire the gun, and the results were quite literally explosive.

The sound was far louder than before, the blast visibly blowing the barrel open as the bullet rushed out of it, yet still accurately enough that the bullet slammed into the armor, not just piercing the metal but also smashing it in, the straw bag dummy blowing in two while a crater was also blasted clean into the stone wall.

"Holy shit." Enshin looked from the damage on the range to the ruined gun, then looking to Grell and Hajime, who along with the other two smiths were staring slack jawed. "So, I think now we know we're gonna have to use a metal better than iron if we're gonna use Blastrock huh?"

"Hot DAMN talk about power! It broke right through the plate!" Grell was the first to react after that and gave a hearty laugh, going over to the stand and taking the wrecked pistol and looking it over, while another of the smiths grabbed the pierced plate, turning it around to show where the bullet had exited, revealing the fray of the hole. "If that much Blastrock is able to pack this much force and do _that _with a hunk of iron _that _small, who can imagine what it'd do with that rifle-thing you drew up too! Though with how it wrecked the barrel, it wouldn't be a good idea to use blastrock like that even with a better material. The pressure of the explosion is probably what did it. But that does prove that it's useable as a propellant, _and _that we need to test just how much of it to use for a safer blast. But kid, you sure this is safe? Obviously this stuff is new to Tortus, and we also can't guarantee it'll make fighting monsters easier. A man in full armor is one thing, we've already seen what a normal one can do… but monsters ain't normal, especially the stronger ones you won't just find roaming around the hillsides outside the city."

"Well aside from the fact we've basically started up a military industrial revolution with this… in a way if we make something that can help even ordinary people defend themselves from things we can't fight, then I'd say it's worth it." Enshin grabbed the still intact pistol and sighted it, tilting it a bit. "Like any other world there's plenty of people in ours who use these to do bad things, hell in our country citizens can only legally own air-powered guns or hunting shotguns, and even then they have to go through a strict regulatory process _just _for those. Police and the military are the only people in Japan who use anything stronger or more lethal than that, and even then people still get their hands on illegal guns to use in crime. So it's not like I can guarantee that if this stuff becomes widespread in Tortus it won't have a similar result. Though maybe the fact there's monsters and other things to fight might help ease that over. For us earthlings we don't really have things like monsters or demons to bring us humans together to fight against."

"Good thing you _didn't _fire it yourself, huh Enshin?" Hajime said, now looking at the damaged pistol himself, then tapping Enshin on the head with it's handle. "What would you have done if you'd accidentally blown your hand off huh?"

"Well it's also a good thing I didn't let myself get caught up in the moment and remember it'd be unsafe. Ah yeah, we should also build in a safety mechanism onto the triggers too." Enshin had a hand on his chin as he then started thinking it over, Hajime chuckling as he saw the gear's turning in his friend's head.

"Well there's still some more time before you two need to head back." Grell plucked the wrecked pistol from Hajime and chuckled at the boys. "So how about we experiment a bit eh? See if we can't whip one of these up that can fire a blastrock shot without breaking, and we can teach both of you about some other weapons you can craft with your skills. Hajime, from one Synergist to another, the best way for you to train up that skill is to use it in any way you can think of. Feel free to get a bit wild with it yeah? Those military types like Captain Meld don't see much use of our skills in combat, but I've got the feeling you're smart enough to think out of the box."

"Th-thank you!" Hajime immediately took a bow in classic Japanese politeness, Enshin laughing as he clapped the boy on the back when he stood straight. "I'll be sure to put that advice to good use."

"And practice does make perfect. We're both crafters after all, so let's put our all into it!" Enshin then threw up a fist as he laughed. "On the road to making totally OP gear!"

"On the road to OP gear!"

"Louder!"

* * *

The older men laughed at the enthusiasm of the younger boys as Hajime repeated the phrase while almost screaming, which turned into Enshin and Hajime laughing about it. They may have been in a new world but that wasn't at all diminishing any enthusiasm. They could at least afford to have a bit of fun with this, couldn't they?

"Alright, gotta do what I said and show this to Meld since he wanted to keep up with my progress since all this gun stuff is new to him."

Enshin was in a good mood as he trotted down the hallway to where he knew Meld's office would be. Thanks to his unusual class and absurd statistics plus the promise to keep the truth on the downlow, Meld had arranged for occasional little secret meetings so that Enshin could show him his progress with increasing his abilities, but also show the knight captain any progress he made on the production of his particular weapons since it wasn't like any specialty weapon Enshin could lift from the treasury fit the niche of a firearm. So, with a working one holstered at his hips, he was making his way there to show Meld their progress and tell him what else he, Hajime, Grell, and the other smiths had started to cook up during the day.

"Oh, Kakumei, you're finally back." Though to Enshin's displeasure Kouki rounded the bend. Kouki looked Enshin over, and he visibly flinched when he saw the gun at Enshin's hip. "Is that a…"

"A gun, yes. Don't act so surprised Kouki. I'm a Gunslinger, so of course I'd have one." Enshin folded his arms, his tone immediately becoming unfriendly.

"Yes but even then is one necessary? This world doesn't even have them, and introducing these people to firearms might…"

"I'm well aware of the risks, and I don't care." Enshin stuck a finger in Kouki's face, the other boy flinching. "Maybe _before_ you start trying to moralize to me, think about our situation. We need to be able to fight at our best to survive, and this isn't going to be like a videogame. You've already killed monsters too, so you should know what a blade going through flesh feels like… but don't tell me, "they're monsters, so it's different", right?"

"Of course it's different! Monsters are just wild animals that are dangerous to people, and by getting rid of them we can keep the people who can't fight safe. We're here to help save these people from the demons after all." Kouki said, and Enshin sighed. It was obvious Kouki was completely and totally oblivious to the implications. He said "demons" like he wasn't talking about other living beings, even when they'd been told demons were a ruling, intelligent race powerful enough to establish their own kingdom in the world.

"And you're saying that on the words of an untrustworthy geezer whose "god" dragged us here from our world against our wills so that we can fight _their _war for them. What reason do I have to trust Ishtar?"

"But you know what Ishtar said! They need people strong enough to help them win, and we're from a stronger world after all. We should use the powers we have now in order to help them."

"Lemme guess, because with "great power comes great responsibility." Right?"

"Exactly!"

"IDIOT!" Enshin snapped, grabbing Kouki by his shirt. "There's an add on to that statement that never gets mentioned. "But with great power also comes great consequences." Just because we have the power to do something in the heat of the moment doesn't mean we _should. _If we're the "heroes" then what do you think happens if any of us, but _especially _you, screw up huh?! All of our asses will be on the line!"

"We won't screw up!" Kouki said, grabbing Enshin's arm and forcing his hand away. "There's no way we can so long as we work together. We'll get stronger, and then save this world so we can go home and get back to our old lives. We're supposed to be the heroes fighting against the villains, so of course it'll work out for us in the end!"

"Fucking…" Enshin took in a breath and then released it, pulling his arm free of Kouki's grasp. "One of these days Kouki, one of these days, reality is going to turn around and clock you so hard you won't know which way to look after you're in the dirt. Heroes? Villains? That's too black and white… the world doesn't work that way just because you think it does. But I'm obviously not going to be able to convince you of that, and right now I don't have the patience to bother. If you'll excuse me, I need to report to Meld about my progress."

"I promise." Kouki speaking up made Enshin stop as he passed by. "Kakumei, I promise we'll succeed! All of us will make it home, that much I'm sure of! I'll make sure of it too, so don't worry so much, alright? I know it's stressful being away from home and not knowing how our parents are, but it'll be fine!"

"And this is why you're an idiot." Enshin sighed and carried on, not wanting to bother anymore. Of course Kouki just twisted the situation to suit his views. His mind had probably come to the conclusion of "Enshin must be acting out because he's stressed out and worried!" and then decided to _attempt _to cheer him up with those words. Enshin shook his head, feeling amazed at how Kouki could manage to be so off the mark. _"It doesn't matter if you don't have any ill intent or not Kouki, it's still possible to say and do things that make you an absolute jackass."_

"You know he's not gonna get it no matter how much you tell him." Enshin turned and saw it was Shizuku who'd spoken out, the girl coming out from behind him past an intersection in the halls, the black-haired girl putting a hand to a hip as Enshin shrugged. "It'll take the world itself shifting to change his mind. Still, I give you points for keeping it up all these years."

"I think I'm losing hair because of it!" Enshin playfully pulled at his blond strands, Shizuku laughing as they lightly fell around his face. "But in all seriousness, Shizuku, if he doesn't stop wearing his ass as a hat some time soon, things could go wrong… we both know how he is. Kouki's too straight forward and inflexible."

"Yes but what else can we do? Everyone else needs _someone _they know to follow and keep them from freaking out. You normally wouldn't be so quiet in this kind of situation if it wasn't for that fact."

"That's part of the problem. I know if I just go and speak out like I usually would, the reaction would be even worse than usual. So I'd rather bide my time and just go with the flow of things." Enshin then pulled out the gun at his hip, giving it a spin on his finger. "Give me a couple of weeks, I bet ya' I'll be swinging around a revolver instead of something like this!"

"Can't say I'm too fond of guns myself, but I'm not the kind who'll argue against something that could be useful." Shizuku folded her arms as Enshin holstered the weapon. "Just be sure to make me a good sword at some point. That saber they gave me is the closest thing they have to a katana, buuut…"

"But it doesn't suit your tastes, right? Alright then, soon as I've got me some god level smithing skills, I'll make you the strongest sword in the world, how about that?"

"Hahahaha! Well then I'm going to hold you to that one Enshin!"

The two teens tapped their fists together before Enshin turned to continue on his intended destination. Sure it was a new world and everybody definitely had their worries and reasons to be concerned or stressed out, and maybe in the long run relying on Kouki wouldn't be a good idea… Enshin knew that well enough even if it infuriated him. But he was able to keep a confident smile on, because at least he had moments like that with people who got his mindset.

Even if that mystery that hung over him now was still a question waiting to have some kind of answer about it found.

"The early bird may catch the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. Sometimes it's better to wait a bit and then go for the goal."


	5. Chapter 4

From Maverick to Hero

**Chapter 4: Looming**

It had now been two weeks since training for the transported students had begun. And Enshin currently found himself with a hand outstretched at a table littered with a few stones of types he hadn't been informed of by Grell, all underneath cloths so he couldn't identify them by sight. What he was doing at the time was simple, testing out his Appraisal Skill. He'd seen the Skill upon initial viewing of his Status Plate, but considering he'd been a bit more concerned regarding his stats at the time, he hadn't given it a lot of thought until Meld had told him how outstanding it was to have it.

The Skill did exactly as it said on the tin, appraising items, and because it lacked a modifier of any kind, it meant Enshin could use it to identify and analyze any object and discover its properties without issue. And it really did mean _any _object.

"Alright." Enshin gave a little hum as the spell he had cast finished, then starting to point at each stone in turn. "The far left one is copper ore, the center left is iron ore, the center right is a steel ingot, and the far right is azanthium ore."

"Good!" Grell swiped the cloth off of the table, revealing that indeed those were the objects present. While the first three were familiar to Enshin as metals native to Earth, the last one, azanthium ore, was one native to Tortus and thus new to him. A super-hard but super-light material that was prized for its rarity and strength when forged, especially when used in alloys. "Though I can't help but feel like it's a bit of a waste to keep having you identify minerals all the time."

"I also practice with it when we're out in the field. Whenever we've got spare time, I pretty much use it to check on things I pick up. Heck I've appraised a bunch of the stuff in the treasury for the hell of it." As Enshin strode along the forge, he also took stock of what was there now.

Considering it had been two weeks and he'd spent near every moment not training here making weapons, the walls of the forge were lined now not just with swords, but also more firearms as well, pistols and rifles, each one more complex than the last as not just Enshin but even Grell, Hajime, and the other smiths' skills at crafting them had improved. Precision had become finer, and today was time for another test as well.

"So, ready to see what the kind of guns used in my world are more like?"

"Well that's what you were promisin' weren't ya kid!"

Enshin chuckled as he walked back out to the still set up range. The wall showed a now multitude of dents from all the test firing that had been performed since the initial move. And now it was time to test what Enshin had been aiming for since starting this.

In his hand now was a revolver of his own make, not precisely styled after any actual model of revolver he knew about, but with inspiration from a few. A rectangular barrel roughly nineteen centimeters long with the barrel at the six o'clock position and constructed out of an azanthium-steel alloy, ensuring strength yet making sure it wouldn't be too heavy, with a cylinder outfitted to hold six bullets, fitted to be the .357 round Enshin knew a good deal about, and a simple grip that was comfortable to hold thanks to its curve. Like their first go with a flintlock, the gun was purely a proof of concept design, granted one at least fit for actual use beyond mere testing.

And of the bullets that were set out for the test firing, while they all looked similar, their fillings were different. While all three were filled with blastrock, how fine the grain was differed for each one, all as a way to test differing levels of power.

With a simple flick of his wrist, Enshin flipped the cylinder out, considering a flip-out style was preferable in maintaining the weapon's structure to allow for the use of more powerful bullets without risking frame damage due to the recoil, and he loaded all three bullets smoothly, a soft click sounding as he set the cylinder back into place.

"Alright, test shot one, large grain, also for proof of operation!"

"Ready to go kid!"

Enshin then pulled the hammer of the gun back, and a moment after he took aim, he pulled the trigger back. While the sound was still loud, it wasn't the same boom that their tests with flintlocks had produced. As Enshin had expected, the gun held perfectly under the pressure of the shot, and the plate-mail dummy in comparison, had a clean hole punched into the metal. And from the eyes of Grell, the result seemed almost instant from how quickly the action had happened. All the effect of a weapon firing at sonic speed rather than sub-sonic.

The second shot was quickly shifted to be aimed at a second dummy, the damage even greater than the first and sending hay flying. And while hard to tell, Enshin was able to catch that it had been faster. Enshin called for the third and last shot, which had the finest grained blastrock packed into it. The last dummy faced a similar fate as the rest, though just seeing if the bullet could penetrate wasn't really the point of this.

"All clear!" Enshin set the gun down after dumping the now empty cartridges, being sure to catch them since he planned to show them to Meld later.

"Hmm, hard to tell if there's really any difference based on how big the grains are." Grell promptly removed all of the plates from the dummies, setting them on another table to look the holes over. "Each one went right through without any issue at all. That'd kill a man without a doubt… though if we're going with a monster hide… hmm, I can't think of any they'd let you kids actually fight right now that'd need that much power to get through."

"Well what about ones they _won't _let us fight?" Enshin grinned as he spun the revolver around, doing some tricks for the fun of it. "Though the more we can pack in the better. Even a larger round should get enough velocity to slam through armor if we're using blastrock. Viva la fantasy minerals!"

"Kakumei-san!"

"WHOA?!" Enshin almost shot right into the air as a sudden voice hit his ears. He shot around as instinct kicked in, and he then groaned when he saw it was just one of his classmates, Endo, a boy of no particular presence, but one of the few other students who didn't dislike Enshin and Hajime, though he tended to just keep quiet about it for his own sake. "Endo, don't just appear behind me dammit! You're lucky this gun is unloaded!"

"S-Sorry! But, there's something going on back at the training grounds! Hiyama and his guys took Hajime to the back room."

"The day he's not with me!" Enshin groaned as he put a hand to his head, because of course something like this had happened.

Normally Hajime stuck with him, since he had an easier time training some of his other skills with the help of Grell and the smiths. Combat training didn't benefit him much beyond learning how to actually wield a sword, and sure Hajime had made some good progress, doing things like making pits and spikes the catch monsters in whenever they were out in the field doing some actual combat practice outside of the training grounds. He had to compensate for his low stats and lacking magical aptitude somehow.

But, Hajime's growth rate was, as almost expected due to his luck on the draw, pitifully slow. He'd only gone up a single level in two weeks, and while his stats were no longer flat tens, with a bit of extra help due to his more focused training, compared to the rest of the class he was still far behind.

By comparison, Kouki had reached level 10, and all of his stats had all doubled in value as well. Enshin was himself in a similar boat, though thanks to his much more absurd degree of stats, even if he wasn't training at the same exact rate as everybody else due to all the time he was spending crafting and making weapons he was comfortable with. But with the appropriate comparison, Enshin was himself level 8, yet his stats had also come close to doubling up. The reason for his slower level up rate was simply because of the fact he spent perhaps _more _time in the forge than out in the field training unlike the others who were more combat oriented.

Keeping this factor of his power secret was definitely a challenge as well. Enshin had to almost intentionally hold back in things like strength and even magic casting. As he'd learned, Tortus had a particular magic system, in that people didn't quite have the innate ability to cast magic without making some kind of medium to do so. This usually involved etching a magic circle onto something, be it paper or material of some kind, Enshin hadn't really paid too much mind to it. Those with proper aptitude could just create magic circles in the air, but the size would vary as one had to etch any information they couldn't inherently put into it into said circle.

For example, Enshin's affinity for fire and dark elements meant if he was casting a spell requiring those elements, then he had no need to include those inscriptions into a circle, and as he'd found, his magic circles didn't need to be very large, only about the size of his palm in order to properly work.

Monsters were considered so dangerous because, while it was extraordinarily rare for a sentient creature like a human or beastman to be able to innately control mana, an Atavist as they were called, monsters could control mana on an innate level. Why this was, nobody knew, even with all of the research that had gone into monsters across the years, as Enshin and Hajime had learned during their research tenures in the royal library.

One of those ventures also teaching them not even in another world were people immune from the age-old idiotic idea of "let's try eating it." Some poor schmucks had decided to see what eating monster flesh would do, and almost expectedly, everyone who had tried it died horribly due to the small mana crystals in the monster flesh causing a rejection within their bodies. Both boys had agreed upon the fact stupidity was truly universal within humanity it seemed.

But as for the actual topic at hand, Enshin and Endo rushed out of the smithy. Enshin had swiped up a few things before he left, particularly grabbing one of the things he'd made for crafting practice, rubber bullets. But, Enshin did at least hope for one thing: That Hajime would at least in some way hold his own.

* * *

As for actually _doing _that, Hajime was, for lack of better words, trying. As for the situation, Hajime was avoiding the low powered spells Hiyama and his goons, who Hajime so affectionately called the Petty Four. He'd arrived somewhat early to the training grounds despite having spent the morning at the library, and because Enshin wasn't around, of course Hiyama had decided it was the perfect chance to mess around with Hajime, since Enshin always spent hours at the smithy before showing up for training.

Just his rotten luck, Hajime supposed.

But, unlike before where he would have just tried to last it out, Hajime was determined to at least buy time for _someone _to show up. That and he at least felt a measure of satisfaction out of seeing the four other boys being annoyed at him being able to, even if barely, avoid most of their attempts to attack him.

It wasn't much, but Hajime knew he didn't have the ability to take them all in a straight fight. Aside from dodging, Hajime did have another idea he could do. He decided to try it on the nearest of the Petty Four, rushing him between a spell he was trying to throw. And when the boy swung at Hajime with his sheathed sword, Hajime ducked and slid across the ground. His hand hit the floor, light coming from Hajime's palm as he slid past, and in the next moment, the floor under the goon warped inwards into a shallow pit, enough that since he was right over it, the boy stumbled and fell right on his back.

"What the…?!" Hiyama's reaction was flat shock as he looked at the downed boy, who was finding Hajime hadn't just warped the ground, but softened it as well, preventing him from getting a solid footing to get back up as his feet and hands kept pushing in and sliding against the softened flooring of the room. "Since when were you so wily huh?! The shit you damn weakling?!"

"Not like I can just let myself be protected forever!" Hajime's moment of pause led to him getting hit dead on by a fireball Hiyama lobbed his way. While it didn't do any hard damage due to being low powered, it still packed the same level of impact as a pro boxer's punch, done because of both Hiyama's own affinities and the artifact he had as well.

"You're so weak though, you don't have any way to actually defend yourself." Hiyama coldly said, growling when Hajime avoided the kick he tried to send his way.

Hajime's trouble, aside from potentially running out of mana sooner than he'd like, as he continued avoiding Hiyama and using Transmutation to trip him and his lackeys up where he could, he would fix the floor later, was that he was averse to violence. Even despite the mistreatment he faced, Hajime had a hard time actually hating people. He would always fold when his back was too the wall, but then Enshin had started intervening. Hajime had the image of Enshin's back burned into his mind… he was strong, even before coming to this world.

In a way Hajime envied that. Enshin spoke out against others as he pleased if he felt like it, and he was physically strong enough to back his own words up in the event someone decided to get physical. But it was also that envy of his friend that was driving him right now. All he wanted was to get _one _hit in, even if it didn't accomplish anything. He just wanted to say he could _do it, _that he could do something on his own he ordinarily felt he couldn''t

Hajime moved past another fireball that had been lobbed at him, and with any kind of strength he could actually muster as he rushed Hiyama, threw his fist up. The difference in their actual levels of strength meant the punch hardly hurt Hiyama at all, but it wasn't the physical damage that caused Hiyama to freeze up and go stumbling back as Hajime's fist managed to cleanly land across his face.

The boy who some saw as a loser and some as kind because of his dislike of violence had actually managed to land a hit on Hiyama. And that had been like a rock slamming through glass.

"HIyama?!" The goons shouted in surprise, Hajime staring in shock that his thoughtless plan had actually _worked. _Hiyama sat up, a hand going to the red mark on his left cheek where Hajime had managed to hit him, his eyes wide as he was processing what had just happened, visibly showing he was wondering if he'd just imagined that.

"The… the fuck?" Hiyama spoke in the same amount of shock as on his face, and then it turned into a glare as his eyes turned to Hajime. "Alright then… you actually wanna fight back? Then how about I stop letting you off easily huh?! Incinerate all that stands in my path – Fireball!"

Hiyama's lackies actually yelped in surprise as the fireball Hiyama made was _much _larger than what he'd been lobbing before. Clearly he wasn't thinking beyond wanting to get back at Hajime for actually hitting him. Any thought about not hurting him too badly was gone.

"Shit." Was all Hajime uttered as the fireball was loosed at him.

"Devour the life of the world – Mana Eater!"

But with the crack of a gunshot, a black ball of energy suddenly rushed from the direction of the entrance, the dark ball slamming into the fireball, and the instant contact was made, the ball burst up and sucked all the flames into it. Hajime also felt a small pull on him, like the energy in his own body was being pulled out for the brief moment the black ball remained in existence.

"So, 'training', eh Hiyama?" Eyes turned as Enshin strode into the room, spinning his revolver on his index finger before slotting it into his holster, Hiyama and goons flinching as the young man appeared. Enshin looked around at the state the room was in too, the obvious marks of Hajime's transmutation catching his eyes, plus the bruise now making Hiyama's face. "To me looks more like you're trying to kill him with a spell like that."

"What do you think you're doing?!"

And Enshin wasn't the only one who had arrived either, because he was quickly followed by a downright livid looking Kaori appeared behind him. Hiyama and his cronies paled immediately, after all they'd now been caught red handed by the girl they were hopelessly smitten with. And it wasn't just her, as Kouki, Ryutaro, and Shizuku followed in soon after.

"Uh… L-Look, don't misunderstand this! We were just trying to help Nagumo train y'know?" Hiyama's attempted to save face was met by Enshin putting a hand to his revolver, which got the bully to flinch. What HIyama didn't know was that Enshin had it loaded with rubber bullets. It wouldn't kill but it would _definitely _hurt like hell.

Though Kaori was clearly more concerned with Hajime, going over to him immediately after she saw the state he was in, though thankfully not as badly as could have been possible for him. Hiyama and the others had ceased to matter for her.

"Training huh? That was a bit too one sided to just be "training", _plus, _Enshin wouldn't have had to stop that fireball if that's all it was." Shizuku had an icy tone in her voice as she looked the damaged room over, which did confirm to her as well it wasn't quite as one-sided as one could've thought.

"We were just…"

"No, you weren't." Enshin interjected as Hiyama tried to speak up again. "That fireball would've actually hurt him beyond just a hard hit… but I'm sure you knew that."

"Nagumo-kun may not be fit for direct combat, but he's still our classmate, so don't do it again." Shizuku had a warning tone in her voice as she eyed Hiyama and the other three boys, who all shrunk away as she glared at them.

"If you've got time to be messing around, then work on your own damn skills as well! At least Nagumo has actually tried to do something with what he has." Ryutaro bellowed. A thankful thing was that the meat headed boy's appreciation for hard work meant he'd started to lighten up on Hajime these past two weeks, since his endeavors with Enshin meant Hajime was indeed doing a lot more than the norm his "lazy student" tag had him pegged with.

Hiyama and his lot awkwardly smiled and started giving hasty, useless excuses as they made a hasty retreat. Enshin sighed as he sat down on a crate, glancing over as Kaori cast some healing magic to get the boy back in full shape, Hajime thanking her for the assist.

"Do they always do things like that to you? If so, I'll…" as Kaori looked off with a downright lethal look in her eyes, Hajime hastily stopped her.

"No it's fine! It's usually not this bad, and besides… I didn't just let them get at me anyway." Hajime looked at his hand, and even after the healing magic, he could still feel a bit of a dull feeling in his knuckles from where he'd struck Hiyama. "I'm fine, really. I may not have done much… but I did hurt his pride, so that's something at least."

"Look, for Kaori's sake at least, tell us if they try again yeah? This idiot here isn't always gonna be there to help you out." Shizuku playfully rubbed Enshin on the head, to which he moved her hand away with a faux annoyed grumble. Hajime was about to thank Shizuku for the concern, _but, _the resident hero just had to go and ruin the mood.

"But you know Nagumo, it would help more if you put in more effort to get stronger than you are now." Kouki's statement immediately got Enshin riled up, and Shizuku firmly planted her hand on his head to keep him down… with a bit of strain to it though. "If you want to grow stronger than you can't keep using your weakness as you are now as an excuse. I've heard that when you're not with Enshin you're spending all your time in the library. If I was in your shoes, I'd spend every spare moment working to get stronger. I know your abilities differ from ours, but I think you need to be more serious. Don't you think Hiyama and the others did all that because they were trying to fix that lax attitude of yours?"

"Will you shut up?!"

_BANG!_

To punctuate his point, Enshin drew his gun and fired it into the air, well, the ceiling anyway. The loud sound got all eyes to turn on him as he stood up, Shizuku shrugging in a visible sign of giving up as Enshin lowered his arm and looked at Kouki with a dead-eyed glare. Even Ryutaro, Kouki's most ardent supporter, was looking at the boy like he'd crossed a line in that statement. He'd downright just said the efforts Hajime _had _been putting in somehow wasn't enough by his perspective.

But of course that was how Kouki saw it, that was how he always saw things. Everything he saw was filtered through his worldview, and he was too dense to try and think with more nuance. As Enshin would say, Kouki's biggest flaw was at the same time what some would call his greatest quality, that being that he saw the good in everybody… the problem was, unlike a reasonable person with that mindset who believed anybody was capable of good no matter what, Kouki outright lacked the ability to comprehend that sometimes, people were just cruel. So by Kouki's worldview, "because people are inherently always good, then cruelty must have a reason behind it, the recipient of that cruelty must have earned it." It was an annoyingly expected conclusion for somebody of that mindset to come to.

But, while the others perhaps had given up on the idea of correcting Kouki because of his own lack of ill will, because he genuinely meant to give Hajime advice even if he was being unknowingly harsh towards Hajime, Enshin was _not _that kind of person. Even if someone would say it was pointless to do so with someone so convinced of their own righteousness, Enshin wouldn't simply sit around when Kouki was blaming Hajime for the actions of those who hated him for no good reason at all.

"What? He really should. Just because Nagumo has a different skillset doesn't mean he shouldn't try his best to be as strong as he can be. And should you really have fired? Now there's a hole in the ceiling." Kouki's sincere nature in some ways was what riled Enshin up more. Honest Kouki may be, but that honesty was annoying… it wasn't a _good _kind of sincere was the problem.

"You're missing the damn point." Enshin tilted his head, and Kouki raised a brow. "Hajime is training differently _because _he has different skills. All of this combat training _doesn't work _for him. It's good for him to learn the basics of fighting so he can defend himself, but all that time in the library is spent _learning. _Hajime probably knows more about what's around Tortus than anybody else in our class right now!"

"Enshin, c'mon, not now." Hajime, who just wanted this mess to be done, tried to stop his friend, but clearly there was no stopping Enshin now… in fact, Hajime could swear he could see Enshin's eyes change in time with his flared anger at Kouki… his eyes looked like a lizard's. Or, perhaps the better word would be _dragon_.

"Well, learning is all fine and good, but think of it that way would you? Even if he sticks to the backlines, it wouldn't help us if Hajime was too weak to at least fight properly."

"Not like I'm not trying to work around that." Hajime spoke under his breath, though his annoyance was clear to those who could hear him speak.

"Kouki, come on, cut Nagumo a break." Ryutaro said, Kouki looking at him in surprise. "Kakumei is right. Nagumo is working within the range of his abilities, and all of this combat training isn't suited for him. Just settle for Nagumo doing the best with what he's got on hand will you? Besides, if you look around, it's obvious he's getting _somewhere _with his personal training."

"Well…" Kouki looked around as Ryutaro gestured. For the first time, Kouki actually looked like he was facing the facts of the situation. While he couldn't be shaken on his stance about why he _thought _Hajime had been attacked, the entire situation was clearly forcing him to actually rethink his stance on the results of Hajime's own efforts. "I guess it's enough. I still think he should work harder thought."

"Let's just leave it there please?" Hajime spoke up before Enshin could say anything since he was looking about ready to shoot Kouki's foot. Hajime gestured at the room again, and Enshin shoved his gun into the holster as he relented to his friend. "Thank you. Now look, training is going to start soon yeah? So, let's just get going before Captain Meld arrives."

As the lot of teenagers then left, Enshin stopped suddenly as they moved back out into the main training hall. He stopped because he felt an odd sensation, one in his _mind _of all places. The sensation wasn't easy for him to pin down though… it felt like waking up, somehow… but also like something was trying to dig into his head somehow. And then, he heard something, a voice that echoed in his head.

"_About time I woke up… not that interesting right now though huh?"_

"What the…?!" Enshin looked around as he heard that voice, and he was even more confused because he knew it. That same deep, booming rumble of a voice that had burned into his memory… the dragon's voice. "You're just in my head…"

"_Technically speaking. It's nothing to go into right now… but me being awake means you've actually started tapping into my powers a bit. Good for you uh… ah, Enshin, right! Weird name."_

"It's not weird." Enshin spoke under his breath to make sure he wouldn't be heard as he leaned against a pillar, the "dragon" laughing. "So what I saw _wasn't _some fever dream, was it?"

"_Not at all. Look, I ain't gonna explain it here, not when we're near that damn church in any form. If ya' don't mind, I'm gonna go quiet for a bit and go digging through your head to see just who I'm working with now."_

"Hey, don't go-and he's gone!" Enshin shook his head as that presence he was feeling vanished from his mind. "Great, _now _there's that! And just what did he mean I tapped into his powers? Just what the hell did that mean?"

But seeing as how it seemed he couldn't just get the dragon to listen to him unless the being _wanted _to listen to him. So not really much of a better idea right now than to get to the daily training and hope for the best later… at least, that was the plan, until around an hour into practice, Meld walked out to the center of the rotunda and cleared his throat, a few moments to get everybody's attention passing as the man clapped his hands to carry the sound more. Once the man had their attention, he spoke loudly.

"Alright everybody, here's the news for you all! Tomorrow, as part of your practical training we're going to be leaving the capital to go on an expedition to the Great Orcus Labyrinth!" Many of the other students looked a bit befuddled by the statement, as the name didn't ring bells… or at least, it did for most who weren't Enshin and Hajime, who _had _spent time researching, and they knew exactly what Meld was talking about. "I'll prepare all of the necessary equipment you'll need, but don't go thinking this will be some walk in the park like what you've done out in the fields and forests near here. So, you better prepare yourselves! Make sure to get as much rest as possible tonight, and be ready for tomorrow! That's all, so get back to it so you're all at your best tomorrow!"

"_Wait… did that guy say Orcus?" _The dragon's voice popped up in Enshin's mind again, Enshin nodding along. _"… he's kidding right?"_

"No. Why are you talking like he's crazy?"

"_Look it's… whatever. If you lot aren't doing anything stupid then I won't say anything more than I need to. Look, just don't go and get killed by doing something crazy, alright? I just woke up here and I am _not _ending up back where I was within a day of doing so!"_

"My body, my rules." Enshin growled. But, now Enshin felt this ominous sensation about him. Things couldn't possibly wind up being that bad, could they? _"No… I won't let something bad happen, that much I can swear on."_


	6. Chapter 5

Arifureta: From Maverick to Hero

**Chapter 5: Downward**

The Great Orcus Labyrinth. Enshin had seen his fair share of books that talked about the thing in his time in the library, and he'd decided bringing one along with him to read during the trip to where it was located a worthwhile decision. Said to span one hundred floors from the surface to deep below the ground, with each floor becoming more and more difficult the further down one went. It was one of seven Labyrinth's, though as far as current society knew, four of them may have been simply myth, as including Orcus, only three of these dungeons had even been located.

Due to it's rather convenient location, a protected gorge that allowed the town that blossomed from the discovery of the dungeon to be well protected, it had in effect become a proving ground for everything from adventurers, soldiers, and mercenary groups, as one could easily gauge their relative skill based on how deep they could go. And aside from being a good place to train, despite the dangers, those who delved into it were able to come out with often valuable resources, particularly the mana crystals harvested from the monsters within.

Mana crystals were a monsters core, in effect a second "heart" of sorts that regulated it's flow of mana. The bigger the monster, the purer and more valuable the crystal, and the more useful a mana transference device it would be for spell casting, as powdered crystals were a core ingredient in creating a spell circle if one wanted maximum efficiency when etching them. Of course, the inherent problem was bigger monsters were capable of using specialized magic abilities, and as such were far more dangerous and more challenging to collect the crystals from. Sure that monster could only use the _one _spell, but they could do it without needing a magic circle of chant, which meant they were dangerous even despite their one-trick nature.

But, the things were valuable for a reason, as they were used by everybody from a common farmer to the highest ranked soldier. Enshin for his part, was considering the possibility of perhaps making special bullets out of mana crystals. Logic led him to presume it had to be possible to infuse a crystal with a spell of some kind, so perhaps it would also be possible to rig up such a thing to work as a special bullet. An experiment he'd try once they returned to the capital and he had a stock of his own to work with.

The town the Labyrinth was found at was called Horaud. Mostly an outpost town fully equipped to cater to those who came there for the task of challenging the Labyrinth, with all the requisite business and supply shops to match. And since the kingdom's soldiers often used the place as a training ground, of the several inns that were hosted there, a state-run locale was the one which the entourage of students were set to be houses in that night.

Luckily, Enshin and Hajime found themselves sharing a room, and the two boys felt relief at seeing a normal looking room after spending so much time in the lavish halls of the castle.

"Ahh, never thought I'd say I wanted to sleep on a bed that _isn't _super soft before." Enshin chuckled a bit as he flopped down on the averagely comfortable bed of the room, Hajime shaking his head as he continued reading the book on Orcus they'd been going over.

"It's a decent change of pace." Hajime said, humming as he looked over the page he was reading again, thankful the Comprehend Language Skill also included written language and not just spoken, because while he could _read _the characters on the page, the language itself still felt foreign to him, looking vaguely similar to English, emphasis on _vaguely. _"So hey, apparently nobody's ever really made it past floor 65 of the dungeon."

"Well at least we know people have made it more than half-way."

The plan for the expedition tomorrow was that the group wasn't going to go any deeper than floor 20. Meld had told them it was fully possible to traverse up and down the floors relatively quickly as long as you knew which paths to take and what to avoid, so such a task being done in less than a day was fully doable. Not that the captain wasn't confident the students were incapable of easily doing so. In line with the idea of testing one, the distance one went was seen as a mark of one's strength. Making it to floor 20 marked one as someone with suitable power to make their way in the world, while making it to floor 65 would mark one as beyond normal excellence.

Clearing that floor? Well, as Hajime had said, nobody had ever done that before. According to the record in his hands, it was because that floor was a "checkpoint", a floor that was overall lacking in much aside from a very strong monster that guarded the way to the next floor. In RPG terms, a boss monster floor. There were a few of these "checkpoints" in the dungeon as a whole, in particular the 21st floor was one of them.

"So the first twenty floors as just the warmup to the rest of the place eh?" Enshin hummed as Hajime showed him that particular passage in the record, the teen rubbing the back of his head as he laid back down with a flop. "How frequent are those checkpoint floors anyway?"

"Pretty sporadic actually. They're not really consistent, but the trend seems to be around halfway to or when you reach the next in the set of ten, relatively anyway."

"So basically, whoever designed the place set random difficulty spikes to test people."

"Guess that's one way to look at it."

"And there's probably gonna be traps too."

"Without a doubt."

"Well then, good thing I nabbed something that could be useful in case of an emergency." Enshin pulled up the rucksack he had brought with him and fished around in it, chuckling when his fingers found what he was looking for, pulling out two round, clear crystals, tossing one to Hajime. "These are nifty little things I found in the treasury when we were allowed to pick and choose from it. Some handy things from way back called Connectors."

"Well then what does it connect?" Hajime rolled the crystal over in his palm, holding it and looking through it, the clear surface mildly warping the view past it.

"I ran an Appraisal check, and they're basically trackers." Enshin then held the one in his hand out, and after a moment, it started to glow with his crimson, pulsing mana color, Hajime staring closer as it lit up. "Put your mana into it, and if you attune it to another Connector, you can use the link to locate that person wherever they are. Useful if say, I dunno, you happen to be exploring a dungeon and a trap separates you."

"Wow… now what's the drawback?" Hajime's immediate response got a dry little groan from Enshin, and that didn't make a good impression.

"Well… the tracking only works as long as the other person is alive." Hajime slapped a hand to his face, Enshin nodding. "Yeah, stupid design flaw."

"But still useful." Hajime's own crystal then began to glow with his sky-blue mana color, and he stated turning it over again. "So uh… how do we connect them?"

"Just tap them together." A small tap came from the crystals as Enshin lightly tapped his to Hajime's, a line of mana of both colors coming from them as Enshin pulled it away before vanishing. "And there. So if we _do _somehow get separated, we'll easily be able to find each other."

"Heh, thanks. Still wish I could do more than sit at the back lines while the rest of you take the front."

"Ah don't worry about it. People won't be able to laugh when you're making cool ass weapons will they?"

"Hehe, yeah, I guess so."

Figuring they would need as much rest as possible the two decided not to mess around much more after looking over another book Hajime had brought detailing some of the monsters in Orcus. Which meant despite the claim the two boys were actually up until quite late. But, as they were starting to doze a tapping on the door, which pulled both out of their stupors of near-sleep. Enshin just flopped back down and shoved his face into the pillow, Hajime tensing up a bit as he worried the late night visitor could be Hiyama or someone from his crew.

"Nagumo-kun? Are you still awake? Can we talk a bit?" But Kaori's gentle voice sounding from the other side eased Hajime's woes, and Enshin rolled over, showing a smarmy look on his face that got a pillow thrown at him as Hajime got off his bed.

Enshin rolled over with that look still on as Hajime unbolted the door, even if he was a bit stiff about it. And when it opened, to Enshin's internal laughter and Hajime's outward surprise, on the other side was Kaori in nothing but a cardigan and thin white negligee. It was about the moment Hajime's face gained a red tint that Enshin wanted to howl, but he dared not ruin the moment.

"What in tarnation?" But Hajime, to his own confusion mind one, suddenly slipping into some weird accent didn't help Enshin's attempts at containing his mirth. Kaori just stared at Hajime blankly, clearly not having heard him right.

"Well, seeing this, I think that _I _will be going to get some fresh air so you two can talk privately." Enshin then hopped off his bed, and before Hajime could even _attempt _a plea for help, Enshin bolted out of the room, snickering all the while as he fled down the halls. Though as Enshin wandered past, for a moment, something caught his eye before it ducked away. He shrugged it off for now though, probably just somebody else up late and darting back to their room thinking he might have been Meld or one of the other soldiers making sure nobody was screwing around at this time.

But, as he made his way to the balcony that overlooked the town, and the entrance to the dungeon beyond it, Enshin felt that uneasy feeling return to him. The awakened dragon knew something about the place. But, he had made a point. As long as they didn't do anything stupid or and played it safe, there wouldn't be any issues.

At least, he wanted that to be the case. Enshin liked trying to be optimistic, but something in him was telling him something was going to occur… like he could feel some dark intent hanging in the air for some reason.

* * *

That next morning, all of the students had been gathered at the entrance to the dungeon early enough in the morning the sun still hadn't risen. Most of the students were giddy with mixes of anticipation and nervousness. Enshin for his part was more still somewhat drowsy, and Hajime was a lot more concerned looking. And as for whatever Hajime and Kaori had talked about while Enshin had given them private time, he was fine with leaving that between them. But he had expressed his disappointment to Hajime they'd done nothing but chat for a bit. At least he could say it seemed like _some _kind of progress had finally been made.

And the sight they were greeted by as they entered the dungeon's entrance made Hajime's potential excitement die down, while Enshin looked curious about it. Rather than your standard cave entrance it was more like they walked into a museum hall, complete with a reception counter with a cute girl in a uniform standing at it, checking people in and out with a smile on her face. The routine was that apparently every entrant's plate would be accounted for and tallied, so that when a group exited, any casualties could be accurately kept. With the threat of a war looming overhead, the government had implemented the policy as they wished to avoid losing too many people before any kind of conflict broke out.

And the plaza that surrounded the entrance was absolutely booming. Stalls of all kinds with merchants trying to ply their wares to any who would pass by, which for these Japanese teenagers made it feel like they'd walked into a festival. And of course all kinds of people were gathered as well, everything from your hardy soldiers in training, bluster filled adventurers who'd probably lose either their confidence or lives within the dungeon, and even criminals. The area was kept safe by work from both the local guilds and government since too many greater resources had to be used elsewhere to worry about things like common criminals.

Enshin adjusted the gear he was wearing as they got closer to the counter, making sure the light, plated leather he had for armor attached to and under the red-brown hooded coat he'd taken up fit right, the clanking of the sheathed sword at his hip coming. Like his revolver the weapon was of his own design, not long enough to be a longsword but enough to serve the purpose of being used one-handed without much trouble. Thanks to working with Grell he'd also been able to make it out of the same azanthium-steel alloy as his gun, so it was plenty strong, even if it was far from the holy swords that Kouki and Shizuku had been given to use.

"I'll make something better eventually." was what he'd thought after hearing the priest who'd handed the two the holy blades go on about how great they were.

He made sure to give Hajime a reassuring tap on the shoulder, Hajime nodding as he let out a long breath, giving a thumbs up to Enshin to show he was good and calm.

And when the group entered the dungeon for real, the air immediately changed. The passage before them was just wide enough to let the whole group enter so long as they kept to a double-file line, and yet despite the lack of a clear light source, the entire space was dimly lit enough one could see their surroundings without the need for any kind of aid. Though in fact, the dim glow was because the Orcus Labyrinth had been excavated out of a massive vein of green glowstone, a kind of ore that emitted it's own faint light, enough that even when embedded under other layers it could give enough light to illuminate a cavern. And eventually, after a few uneventful minutes, the passageway, which had been going even so slowly downward since they entered, gave way to a wider room.

A large plaza of a space without much to it other than crags and old rock formations, plus the scars of old battles left behind to mark the place. Above them, the ceiling was a massive dome, dotted with protruding chunks of glowstone that gave much better illumination to the space. But the curious staring of the students was interrupted as cracks appeared in the walls, and coming from them were multiple creatures currently looking like furballs.

And as Meld was starting to shout orders, a loud crack hit the air as the furballs began unfurling, one going down with a spray of yellow blood flying from it's cranium. Even the creatures seemed confused by the sudden death of one of them, and all eyes flew to Enshin, who was standing with his gun drawn, smoke fading from the barrel. He'd gone and preemptively fired before anything else.

"Kid! Wait for orders before just randomly attacking!" Meld shouted, though the man was actually impressed by the forwardness of the attack, especially since now he'd seen for himself just how well Enshin's personal weapon worked on monsters.

"Sorry, impulse!" Enshin said, lowering the gun and glancing to the side. All his time playing RPGs with Hajime had taught him the best method in free form combat was to just take the initiative and get the first strike.

"Alright, with that out of the way. Kouki, your team up front, everybody else fall back! You'll all rotate as we advance, so stay sharp! These monsters are ratmen, as basic as the slimes and wild boars you've fought. They're quick on their feet but dumb as rocks. Be sure to keep your cool as you fight!"

Having recovered from their surprise, the ratmen, as Meld said, attacked with surprising speed, their red eyes gleaming as they moved. True to the name the creatures were giant, bipedal rates, which for some reason had pectorals and abs lacking in fur, as if the monsters were trying to show the muscles off.

Kouki's group all grimaced when they got a closer look at the things, as they were definitely unnerving to look at, with their front liner Shizuku grimacing the hardest at the sight of the things. Kouki, Shizuku, and Ryutarou immediately engaged the monsters as they got into range, Enshin leaning out from the other bunch of students to watch. For spellcasting in the rear, Kaori was joined by two of her friends, the glasses wearing Eri Nakamura and small, energetic Suzu Taniguchi. A basic formation the "Hero Party" had practiced quite a lot during their training.

Kouki's swing with the bastard sword he wielded, lazily called "The Holy Sword", took a multitude of the attacking monsters down with it faster than most could see. The sword was also enchanted with the light element, meaning that aside from its enchanted edge, it had the disgustingly efficient effect of weakening enemies hit by it's light while also strengthening the wielder in the process. Quite the dirty trick for a "holy" weapon to have.

Ryutaro had the quite simple joke of Monk, a classic among RPG staples. With unbreakable relic gauntlets and greaves that could fire magical shockwaves, plus his massive frame made the young man look more like an armored knight even if he was fighting almost truly bare handed, making a wall that didn't let a single foe past.

Shizuku was fittingly for her, a Swordsman. While she'd have much preferred a katana, the saber she'd been given was at least halfway there, if still too heavy for her liking. But not like it hampered her as she swiftly cut down the attacking ratmen. Her skills had been refined even more since she had arrived, enough that even the more experienced knights had shown admiration towards the girl for her talent.

But of course it wasn't like the spellcasters were to be left out. As if an instinct had made them do it, the other students moved to give the three girls a wider berth as they cast, already feeling like it'd be the best course to take.

"Flames black as pitch, swirl and burn across thine enemies! Burn until naught but ash remains! Spiral Blaze!"

Cast in unison, a torrent of black flames surrounded the remaining monsters. The ratmen screeched and wailed until the flames turned them to ash. All of it had been over in practically an instant, with nobody else even getting a chance to rotate in to take a shot of their own. Seems the monsters at this stage were too weak to even put up a fight against the leading group of students.

"Well done! Alright, the next group will be next, so don't relax just yet!" Meld sighed as the students couldn't help but get excited despite it. He couldn't fault them for being that way, especially with the quick display their strongest had displayed, and even he couldn't prevent a smile from showing. "Also, while you don't have to worry about it because this is just training, on future dives try to kill your enemies in ways that preserve their magic crystals so they can be collected. What you did was overkill."

And to prove his point, Meld pointed a thumb towards Enshin, who was collecting the crystal that had been left after the body of his sole kill had vanished, the young man showing the item between his fingers before pocketing it and retreating back into the fold of others, Kaori and her friends blushing a bit as they realized they may have gone too far on their first shot.

From that point on, the group made smooth progress as they went floor by floor, rotating their vanguard the whole while. With Kouki at their head, progress was swift and efficient, though he wasn't the only star of the show, as during the times when Enshin and Hajime had their turns at the front, they also drew eyes. Enshin as he showed the fruits of his labor with the quick, clean kills his gun could afford, but also showing excellent swordsmanship and spellcasting blended in with it. Hajime may not had had power going for him, but he did have his wits, setting up pitfalls to trip enemies up, or creating things like spikes to allow Enshin to send the monsters onto, and other traps he could think of. He may not have had the best chances in a direct fight, but his confidence was bolstered by fighting alongside his friend.

The display of overall skill made an impression of it's own compared to the others who relied more on their overpowered abilities to compensate for the time being, Meld and the knights surely looking impressed by Enshin and Hajime's teamwork.

With that kind of progress, the students were able to make it down to floor 20 in record time. Floor 20 was what separated your rank and file fighter from someone with real experience, and making it past floor 40 was when someone was considered truly superhuman, with floor 65 of course being the current furthest depth anyone had ever reached.

And while the students had a relatively easy time with the monsters, what was probably their worst enemy as they moved through each floor was instead the traps. Some were merely made to stifle progress or surprise one, but others were straight up lethal contraptions that anyone less prepared or lacking experienced dungeon divers would've easily been caught by. Thankfully they _did _have a tool that let them scan for traps, a Fair Scope. A handy magical item that could detect magical traps, and since most of the dungeon had such traps, it could pick up almost all of them. The main drawback of the item was it's limited range, so it wasn't like you could throw caution to the wind just because you had it.

So really even if their overpowered abilities helped, progress was swift because the students had good mentors guiding them through and making sure they weren't doing anything overly reckless or ignorant of their surroundings. Meld also make sure to remind them not to enter a room before scanning it for traps.

"Alright, don't get cocky just because we made it this far now! Monsters won't be coming at you one species at a time anymore. They'll coordinate with each other to attack in groups! But if we keep at the pace now, we'll clear this floor in no time, and we'll finish today's training at the path to the next floor!"

Everyone shouted affirmatives to Meld's words as they kept cautious looks about themselves. Though one thing that was bothering Hajime, and by extension Enshin, was how he kept feeling this gaze fall onto him, particularly in any moment where either Hajime spared a glance at Kaori or vice versa. He was feeling it now as the group was taking a short break in a clear area of the floor while Kaori and Shizuku were having a playful chat about Kaori shooting Hajime looks.

Hajime was mostly bothered because he'd felt that odd gaze since the morning gathering, but every time he tried to see who was looking at him, the feeling died away. Enshin had the same sensation but with only similar results afforded when he went to look.

But the group continued on nonetheless. Thankfully for them, every floor up to the 47th had been mapped out, so there was no chance of getting lost. Every floor of the dungeon was roughly a kilometer in size, with some slightly smaller and some slightly bigger. As for their destination, it was the deepest room of the 20th floor, a cave made of ice with all kinds of protrusions from the wall.

And sadly while teleportation magic had existed during the Age of Gods, nobody could use it anymore so once they were done, the group would have to walk all the way back to the entrance.

Their progression had slowed a bit as they neared the area, a large enough block forcing everyone out of formation and into single-file in order to get through. But then, Meld and Kouki suddenly froze, and Meld turned to the group with an urgent look. It looked like a monster had finally arrived.

"It's camouflaging itself! Everyone, check your surroundings and get ready!"

"_On your left. Aim a bit higher and shoot."_

With the sudden voice from the dragon ringing in his head, Enshin rapidly drew his gun and did as directed, aiming up until his instincts told him he'd reached far enough. Fire started to swirl around the barrel, and anyone close enough would've caught that Enshin's eyes gleamed golden for a moment.

"Rend the air and scorch the sky before me. Turn to cinder the foe in my way. Eruption Burst!"

With the call that sounded as Enshin pulled the trigger, a beam of flame so bright it became blue shot from the barrel of the gun as it fired, the metal turning red from the heat of the shot. Whatever creature was standing there barely even got time to react before it's head and shoulders were blown away by the blast, the scorched remains of its body and arms splattering onto the floor as everybody else moved aside while yelping in shock, and a long hole was left in the wall of the dungeon where the creature's upper portion had been.

And then Meld smacked Enshin on the head as following that, a portion of the wall also crumbled away. The man had a popped vein and a strained smile on his face, Enshin having a questioning look on too.

"OW! The hell old man?!"

"Don't go using skills like that in such a tight space! You could've brought the whole cavern down on us!" Meld said, Enshin rubbing where he'd been struck as he clicked his tongue. "It's good you took that Rockmount out so quickly, but next time, maybe don't do it with the beam of fire okay?"

"So that's what this gorilla looking POS was." Enshin gave the remains of the body a good kick before they crumbled away, leaving only the rather sizable magic crystal laying on the floor. "And the cavern wouldn't have collapsed. The only thing that broke was the wall."

"_Because like I'd tell you to shoot like that if it _was _going to happen."_

"_I blame you for this."_

Enshin just sighed as the dragon snickered, and others were chuckling, while Hajime and Shizuku rolled their eyes. Though as they started to proceed again, Kaori stopped, gazing at something that had become apparent because of the fallen wall.

"What is that? It's so sparkly…" And at Kaori's words, everybody shifted back to see just what she was looking at. Now visible from the fresh alcove in the wall was a bright, gleaming blue crystal, with an even deeper shade of blue in it's core. Almost all of the girls were now aweing at the pretty gem.

"Hm? Oh, that's a glanz crystal, and a large on to boot. How rare!"

Enshin gave a hum as Meld confirmed what it was. Enshin knew what kind of crystal it was from his various tests with Appraisal. Basically, Glanz was a raw gemstone, no special properties aside from its looks. For that reason, it was popular with noble ladies and their daughters. It was used to make all sorts of jewelry to wear, and was incredibly popular. Grell had told Enshin such gems were among the top three to use for a proposal ring, a tidbit he'd told the boy while smugly boasting he'd done so with his own wife when they were young.

"That sounds so lovely." Kaori's face gained a light tint as Meld explained the gem to them, her eyes then trailed over to Hajime, and the red tint got deeper. Enshin and Shizuku snickered while exchanging snide looks as Hajime looked away. It was a quick moment, but there was one other who clearly noticed.

"In that case, I'll grab it for us!" Hiyama then shuffled out from the crowd, and Enshin gaze him a flat look. "What?! Got a problem Kakumei?!"

"It's obviously a trap." Enshin said.

"Totally a trap." Hajime added.

"Without a doubt, a trap." Shizuku said, Hiyama just growling at them.

"Oh screw you guys! What, scared of a little crystal? Why would it be a trap when it was in a wall huh?" Hiyama made sure he flipped the bird at Hajime and Enshin as he dashed ahead and started clambering up onto the remains of the wall, reaching out for the crystal.

"Wait, don't run off on your own! If they're right and it's a trap, we're best leaving it when we don't know!" Meld shouted, moving after Hiyama, Enshin growling and going after him too.

"Idiot! Don't just think it's safe for no reason!" Enshin yelled, but Hiyama pretended not to hear as he got to the crystal. One of the knight's pulled out his Fair Scope, and his face went pale.

"Captain! They were right, it's trapped!"

"What'd I say?! Hiyama don't touch it!" Enshin got close, but as he was about to grab Hiyama, it was a moment too late.

Hiyama's hand pressed onto the crystal, and a magic circle emerged from it immediately. The trap had been set for anyone too dumb to go for the rare crystal. "If it's looks too good to be true, then it is." A golden rule of the world in general, one that Hiyama had totally neglected in a moment likely fueled by his disdain for Hajime and unrequited feelings towards Kaori.

The magic circle grew quickly, taking up the entire room. For the students, this felt like a repeat of the day they'd been summoned. Meld shouted for a retreat, and everybody scrambled for the exit… but they didn't make it in time. Light filled the room, and everyone felt a sensation of weightlessness. A moment later, and they all landed on the ground with heavy thuds.

Enshin let out a groan as he got up, looking around to get a bearing for their surroundings. Kouki, Meld, and the other knights had also been quick to get back up. He trap had clearly been a teleportation spell, and they had no idea just where it had taken them.

They'd all been transported onto a bridge. A good ten meters wide and maybe one hundred long but lacking any kind of railing meaning there'd be nothing to catch someone close to the edge. The ceiling was well above them, and rather than being over some kind of river, the bridge was over nothing but a dark abyss with no indication of just how far down it even went, like they were suspended over a pit right down to hell.

They'd landed right at the middle of the bridge, one direction leading to a path that went further down, and another that lead back upwards. After confirming the situation, Meld nodded and pointed off to the upwards path.

"Everybody head for the stairs! Get to safer ground, quickly!"

The man's voice boomed like thunder, and the student's quickly rushed to comply. But, a trap in this dungeon wouldn't be so easily escaped.

"_Agh dammit it all! Stop now!"_

Enshin skid to a halt as the dragon snapped at him, his eyes going wide as a series of red magic circles appeared in their path, the others stopping and letting out panicked yells at the sight of them. A single pulse followed, and waves of monsters appeared from them. The monsters now blocking their path to the stairs were all dark skeletons, their bones looking charred black, the broken remains of armor and weapons loosely hanging from their shambling forms, Traum Soldiers. Empty eye sockets gleamed with angry red light as they began to shuffle onto the bridge.

But it was what appeared at the other end of the bridge that felt far more threatening as Enshin turned around.

From a magic circle as wide as the bridge, a massive quadrupedal creature emerged. The best thing Enshin could compare it too was some kind of dinosaur, if one was a terrifying mass of muscle and all kinds of shard ends on each limb and it's head, it's body coursing with glowing red veins as it loosed a deafening roar that echoed in the cavern, flames sprouting from its jaws.

"My god… it's a Behemoth." Meld's eyes widened in horror as the beast glared at the terrified group of students, who now seeing the man who was their main pillar of support against the unknown himself shake in fear had sent a wave of terror through them.

Kouki turned to ask Meld what the creatures abilities were, but such a beast wouldn't give him the luxury of time. Thankfully, a call from Enshin as he pulled his fun up and fired at the Behemoth broke the air. But, the same attack that had annihilated the Rockmount in one blast only scorched the hide of the creature. The Behemoth yowled in pain, but if anything, all that had happened was that now, the thing was only angry, and its attention was on Enshin.

"_Idiot! Even with your current power you're not strong enough to fight one of those things yet! You'd pull it off if these other kids were stronger, but right now you don't have a chance in hell!"_

"Then tell me how to get everyone out of here!" Enshin hadn't thought when he'd snapped at the dragon, though all the chaos meant nobody caught him speaking as Meld, now back to his senses, began barking orders.

"Alan, take the kids and break through the line of Traum Soldiers! Kyle, Ivan, Bael, make a barrier! We have to stop that thing no matter what! Kouki, Enshin, head to the stairs with the others!"

"Meld-san, please wait! We can help too! That dinosaur thing…"

"Kouki we should listen to him." Enshin said, keeping his gun trained on the Behemoth as it's lethal glare focused on him. "We don't have a chance against this thing. We should run, not do the stupid thing and try to fight it."

"Enshin is right! That thing is a Behemoth, a monster that appears on the 65th floor, which means _that _is where we are right now! The reason nobody breached this floor, even when the legendary hero of old who was supposed to be the strongest human got here, was because _that thing _stopped him! I'm not letting any of you kids die here, so go, now!"

Kouki faltered as Meld shouted at him, and Enshin, knowing he would refuse to move, started shoving him along as he backed away, Kouki digging his heels in to fight back, but was unexpectedly met with more force than he thought, as like everyone else, Kouki was under the impression Enshin was barely just at his level of strength.

"Don't be a stubborn idiot!" Enshin snapped, giving Kouki a hard shove with his arm, but before he could say anything else, the Behemoth roared again, Enshin feeling a sudden weight on his shoulders, as if the creature was calling him out as it charged right for him and the other students.

In the urgent moment, the knights acted. Chanting a spell four lines long, in tandem, a magic circle wide enough to cover all of the students, and inscribed on the highest quality paper one could have. They only had one use, and the barrier would only last one minute. But, the barrier that rose was absolutely impenetrable, and the Behemoth's charge stopped dead as it hit the glowing wall of mana that shot up before it. A shockwave rocked the air from the impact and obliterated the ground near it. The bridge held, but it shook in an all too dangerous way. Some of the panicking students shrieked and fell to the ground.

And then there were the Traum Soldiers. Monster that appeared from the 38th floor and deeper, the things were far stronger than any of them had faced until now. Any kind of formation fell apart as the students began scrambling for the exit, and the knight with them, Alan, desperately tried to keep some sense of order amid all of the panic.

Enshin turned as the chaos ensued, firing at the Traum Soldiers fast enough the sound of gunfire was like a drumbeat. But, Enshin could only reload so fast, and he only had so much ammo on him. While he'd been smart to conserve it during the trip down, he didn't have anywhere near enough to take on that many enemies on his own… but then he caught it.

Some of the soldiers were losing their footing and having swings go wild. They stumbled and fell right into the abyss below. And there was Hajime, crouched down with his hands on the ground, panting as he popped a mana pill into his mouth, going over and helping a female student who'd fallen down. Enshin didn't need much more than that to encourage him as he swung his sword and ripped it through a Traum Soldier, storing his gun and whipping his hand out as he chanted out a fireball spell, letting it rip past the Traum Soldiers getting close to some of the other students.

Hajime also started edging towards Enshin's side as he kept making pitfalls, while the girl he'd helped dashed off to get back to the main group. Whatever he'd said, Enshin had caught that Hajime had helped their classmate get back some hope.

"I knew you'd pull through!" Enshin chuckled, Hajime nodding.

"Yeah… we've gotta do something. What everyone needs right now is a leader."

"Yeah I get ya'. I can open a path but not like the class maverick can get these people together." Enshin nodded as he let out a blast of dark power from another spell, feeling a rise in his strength return as the mana the Traum Soldiers had was pulled to him by the spell, a handy one called Life Steal. "Kouki!"

Enshin and Hajime both turned and sprinted towards Kouki, who'd turned back to face the Behemoth. The beast was still ramming into the barrier, trying to break it down, and the casters were doing their best to hold it for as long as possible. But, cracks were already forming along it as they grit their teeth.

"Dammit this won't hold for much longer. Kouki, do what I told you and go!" Meld shouted, Kouki shaking his head.

"I won't! We're not going to leave you behind! We're all making it back together!"

"Now isn't the time for an ego trip!"

Meld growled as those words left his mouth. Of course, that would be a hard order for Kouki and the other's to swallow. While Meld and his knights were experienced soldiers who knew sometimes you had to make the hard choice to cut and run while an ally made the way for you when against a foe too powerful for everyone. But, the soldiers knew this because they were veterans of many battles. The students weren't, and Kouki especially was the type who wouldn't cut his losses and run if it meant leaving people behind.

Plus, there was the fact that unlike Enshin who _had _realized they didn't have a hope of fighting the Behemoth, Kouki clearly though he could. The gleam in his eyes said he was looking for a fight. Meld knew it was the overconfidence of someone new to battle… it was here the man wished all of these kids had the same degree of sense as Enshin and Hajime, not to let the praise they received go to their heads and lean on their inherent power.

"Kouki, listen to the captain, we have to retreat! Enshin can only do so much against the soldiers on his own, everybody else is too panicked to fight back quickly!" Shizuku, who had also grasped the situation, grabbed Kouki by the arm.

"OI DUMBASS!" And as Ryotaro was about to get words in, Enshin came careening in and landed a boot right on Kouki's back, the other boy yelping as he stumbled. "Before anybody says anything that'll get him in the wrong headspace, the idiot needs to pay the fuck attention to what _else _is going on!"

"Amanogawa-kun, I get your concern with the monster, but look at what _else _is happening!" Hajime came running up as well, pointing off back towards the other end of the bridge. "You need to get back there now! If we're going to get out of here, then everybody else needs you!"

"Nagumo, what are you talking about? And what are you even doing over here?"

"LISTEN TO ME DAMMIT!" Hajime got loud as he got into Kouki's face, surprisingly the class leader with the sudden brazen move, yanking Kouki around and making him look at the panicking crowd behind them. Kouki was downright in shock at how Hajime, the guy who was normally quiet and blew everything off with a smile, was suddenly so loud. "Look at what's happening behind you! Everyone is panicking over there, and it's because their leader isn't with them! So for once, get your head out of the clouds, and quit thinking with your ego! They need help, they need _you!"_

Kouki now finally saw it as Enshin took the chance to lob another fireball at the Traum Soldiers. Kouki saw, even as Enshin's spell blew them away, his classmates being surrounded by the swarm. Their stats had protected them so far, but their haphazard, aimless fighting meant that sooner or later, someone was going to get killed if they couldn't break through the line.

"Look, I can blow them away but that's not enough. I'm not you, I'm the guy who half the class hates, the delinquent who gets into fights and who looks different!" Enshin said, grabbing Kouki by the armor. "What they need is someone who can do more than blow away those things in one go, they need someone who can do it _and _get rid of their fear at the same time! You're an idiot but you're also the exact kind of guy who can do that! I'm the Maverick, you're the Hero, so go and do what a Hero does! Saving people is more important than fighting a giant monster!"

Dazed, Kouki looked from his panicking classmates, then back to Enshin and Hajime, who's resolute looks made him nod. Kouki sighed, then he turned to Meld.

"Meld-san, I'm sorry about earlier. We'll retreat, and then-"

"GET DOWN!"

Meld shouted as the Behemoth rammed the barrier again. Hajime reacted just in time as the barrier was about to shatter, transmuting part of the bridge to make a stone wall, but that got blown away just as the barrier did, sending everyone flying back across the bridge. Enshin rolled up quickly and pulled out his gun, chanting again as he fired another Eruption Burst at the creature. The blast hit dead onto the helmet-like head of the Behemoth, slamming into one of the horns and shearing part of it away, eliciting another pained roar from the beast.

But, that only cleared the dust, and now they saw Meld and the other three knights on the ground, groaning in pain. The combined force of the shockwave and their spell failing, even with the additional save of Hajime's stonewall, had robbed the men of their ability to move.

"Well… shit." Enshin stood as he wiped his chin off of a bit of blood that had come from his lip, the Behemoth growling at him again.

Their escape blocked, most of them in a panic, and now the men who'd been leading the students through were down and in need of assistance if they were going to escape, while before the ones who could be considered the strongest ones there was a foe they couldn't beat.

"What a day this turned out to be."

"_Damn it all… guess I need to lend a hand to you brats." _As the dragon let out a sigh, Enshin suddenly felt a pulsing sensation in his body, feeling the bloom of warmth in his chest grow hotter and hotter. _"This won't last long, so make it count kid."_

Those around Enshin gasped as they saw what was happening as a dark red aura rose up around him. Right before their eyes, Enshin's blonde hair was turning red, and when he looked up towards the Behemoth, his eyes were glowing gold, the pupils yet again slits as he then glared down the Behemoth.

"Fine by me… I'm not letting this thing kill anybody today."

* * *

**A/N**

**Sooo yeah, when I was scanning back over the LN for this segment I forgot just how freaking **_**long **_**this part goes on for… so I'm splitting it in relative two parts because I am **_**not **_**making these chapters way too flippin' long! So, see ya'll on the next chapter when things **_**really **_**go down!**


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Disaster**

The air felt like it was shifting as Enshin's aura pulsed around him like rising flames, and the snarl he let out showed that along with the change in his eyes and hair, fangs were now visible in his mouth. As another pulse came from the rising aura, the others behind him could have sworn they it changed shape, wrapping over him in the shape of a dragon with it's wings spread wide before melting down and remaining steady around Enshin.

"What the… Kakumei what's going on?" Kouki asked, Enshin looking back at him, Kouki flinching as the golden, draconic eyes looked at him.

"Get Meld and the others out of here. I can hold this thing back for a bit." Enshin said, flicking his wrist as he looked back to the Behemoth, who was starting to edge forward again.

"Alright!" Kouki and his other party members scrambled off, though as Enshin stepped forward with sword and gun in hand, he glanced over when he herd other steps, _Hajime _still standing by him.

"What are you doing? You should go with them!" Enshin said, Hajime giving him a hard look.

"I'm not letting you deal with it alone. Look, I've got an idea to buy the others time… but quick question, can you kill it?"

"_Eh I'd say now you're bout 40:60… the 60 is against you."_

"_Don't need your input right now!" _Enshin mentally snapped at the dragon, and then gave a breath. "Not likely… but I already know I can hurt it. So that much works out."

"Alright then… I'm going to stop it from moving." Hajime knelt on the ground, placing his hands on the surface of the bridge. "And when it's stuck, give it everything you've got!"

"So what we've been doing all day! Heh, fine by me!" With a flick of Enshin's wrist, his sword's blade began coursing with deep crimson fire, the Behemoth roaring at him as it's "helmet" too began to light aflame, it's horns glowing hot red.

"You two!" And then a shout from Meld drew the two's attention, the captain managing to move himself off of Kouki, walking over to the two boys even with the slow pace his wounds caused. "Do you two even have a plan?"

"We do." Hajime said. "We'll hold it here. I'll transmute the stone to trap it, and Enshin will cause whatever damage he can to slow it down. You all need to break through the Traum Soldiers and set up a line so that once we're clear, we can bombard it with every spell we can so Enshin and I can bolt back to the rest of you."

"That's awfully risky, are you sure?" Meld said, but, the Behemoth had clearly finished "charging up", and there wasn't any time to contemplate further. "Alright then, I'll put my confidence in you both! I won't leave either of you behind, that's a promise! Now give that thing the what for while we rally the others!"

"Heh, thanks for the vote of confidence old timer!" Enshin made a salute with his gun before running off towards the Behemoth, Hajime nodding as Meld and the others left again, Hajime's eyes focusing in as his palms began to glow.

The Behemoth loosed another roar as it charged at Enshin, it's horns coming down as Enshin lowered his stance, his burning sword sparking across the ground as the flames burned hotter, starting to make the metal itself glow hot. And when the Behemoth had come down on him, Enshin leaped high, arcing over the Behemoth, readying his sword as he began to fall.

When he crashed down on the beast again, the flames around the blade burst in a flare of dark crimson, the blade gouging into the Behemoth's body. The impact alone was enough to send the Behemoth skidding across the bridge, the monster ramming it's legs down to stall itself. And that was the opening Hajime used.

"Transmute!"

Arcs of light flew across the ground as it began shifting, the Behemoth's legs soon finding themselves trapped into the morphed stone, sinking a full meter into the bridge. And just to be sure about it, Hajime made sure he was hardening the stone around the legs as the Behemoth tried to pry itself free by violently thrashing around, Enshin holding on thanks to how deeply he'd lodged his sword into the beast's body.

"Talk about a bucking bull! But, don't think too much now big guy!" Enshin spun his gun before aiming it towards the fold of the Behemoth's neck just behind it's head crest, the barrel beginning to lick with crimson flames as it heated up again. "Hellfire!"

The name ripped from Enshin's mouth without thought, the crimson flames becoming edged in black as the bullet meant to focus the spell was let free. The Behemoth's thrashing unfortunately meant Enshin's mark wasn't dead on, but, the dark blaze that rushed from the gun slammed into its crest, and an agonized roar followed as it tore through the structure.

"One more!" Enshin took aim again, but this time downward on himself as he also sent flames through his sword again to further stall the Behemoth. The thing was still strong, and Hajime only had so much mana to use to keep it trapped. This next shot had to count, so there was no use aiming for a kill shot even if Enshin could help it. The beast would be free the second Hajime either lost concentration or ran out of mana.

He had to put everything he could into this one attack. The flames focused around the revolver were getting so intense the metal wasn't just glowing hot, it was downright starting to _melt _because of them, but Enshin didn't pay it any mind as he pulled the trigger again while shoving the barrel into the wound his sword had caused.

The shot didn't just cause flames to blast from the Behemoth's current wound, but one could see the hot glow come from it's underside before blasting through, the Behemoth roaring as it's head flew upwards, the molten crater beneath it only causing more damage as it continued to writhe about.

Enshin paid no mind to the fact that as he drew his gun out, the barrel had turned into little more than slag, more concerned with getting off of the monster, and he smirked when he saw a flash of white tear through the Traum Soldiers at the other end of the bridge, Kouki's voice declaring the drive to get out of this mess echoing over the bridge.

"I'll give this big guy one more!" Enshin whipped his sword around again, his thought about getting this done… again even if he couldn't kill it, he'd make sure it was slowed down as much as he could. Crimson fire edged in black appeared around his sword, Enshin letting it loose in a wide wave at the Behemoth as he landed on the bridge, the beast again roaring as it was engulfed into an inferno of fire far different than it likely had any way to resist or deal with.

"Nice!" Hajime shouted, Enshin nodding as he stepped back, his sword thankfully saved the same fate as his now useless gun, which had been roughly shoved back into it's holster even with how warped the barrel was. "I'm about out of mana, let's go!"

"The big guy should be plenty hurt, so I couldn't agree more!"

Hajime nodded as Enshin started edging back. His mana was just reaching his limits, and about now on the other end of the bridge, Meld and Kouki had managed to rally enough of the spellcasters to form a line while a path to the stairs remained. Enshin nodded at Hajime as he poured as much more into his transmuting as he could to make sure the restraints held the wounded Behemoth for as many precious seconds as they could get.

"Now!"

With Hajime's call, Enshin swung his arm and lobbed a fireball into the Behemoth's face. Hajime quickly stood, and as the Behemoth thrashed from it's restraints as Enshin's fire kept torching it, both teenagers dashed off as quickly as they could, running full tilt to make as much distance between themselves and the Behemoth as possible.

The wounds on the beast surely brought them more time, though it was still a terrifying through that even after Enshin had blown apart a good portion of it's head _and _blown a hole clean through it's upper torso, the Behemoth was still strong enough to rip free of it's restraints a mere ten seconds after the boys began running off. The monster's glaring eyes focused on the two who'd put it into such a situation, a bellow coming from it as the remains of it's "helmet" began to glow as it charged once more. But, it was stopped dead when a barrage of spells were loosed at it.

It created something almost like a rainbow from the various colors each spell made as they arced over Enshin and Hajime to hit the monster. They were too weak to do any actual damage, but the barrage was keeping it in place.

Enshin and Hajime both felt confident as the spells flying inches above their heads kept flying, both assured that their cheat-tier classmates couldn't miss, and emboldened especially by Enshin's own harsh damage to the monster. Enshin dared to let a smirk show on his face, Hajime producing a confident smile as they picked up the pace.

But, those confident looks froze in place. Enshin saw it sooner since he was a faster runner and had a bit of distance on Hajime. Not enough to create a wide gap, but ahead enough he saw it a second before Hajime did. One of the spells was too low… and it's arc was bringing it right between them, right for Hajime. Someone had changed how the spell flew.

"_Oh come on!" _Enshin began skidding to a stop to turn, but as he did, Hajime was also stopping to brace himself, only for the fireball to explode inches from his face. The shockwave blew Hajime back towards the Behemoth and Enshin only further away. Neither had taken any real damage, but Hajime was clearly dazed and had lost his balance, while Enshin had recovered faster.

But the Behemoth was clearly tired of being bombarded, and roared again as Hajime just managed to get his bearings and recover to start running again. As the beast charged it's mana to it's "helmet" once more, Enshin raised his arm up, but rather than dark flames, the flowing energy that came off his arm as a ball gathered in his hands was the inverse, pitch black like a void and edged in crimson light.

Enshin jumped back to make more distance as Hajime mustered what strength he could to jump to the side as the Behemoth leaped at them both again. The dark bolt of energy Enshin loosed slammed right into the Behemoth as it came down, crashing into the bridge with all of it's fury, the blast of power that had hit it causing a wild dispersal as it impacted, another shockwave hitting the air. Enshin and Hajime were blown back further, all too close to the others now… but the bridge was already falling apart around them.

"Quick, get them!" Meld bellowed, the knights rushing forward as massive cracks coursed along the bridge. The repeated attacks had finally been too much, and the structure had finally lost any remaining endurance it had.

The behemoth bellowed as it tried to find some kind of footing, but everywhere it's heavy steps pressed only fell away, and the beast fell screaming into the abyss below. Hajime and Enshin were moving as quickly as they could as the bridge fell around them, Enshin making a leap and managing to grab onto two of the soldiers reaching out for them.

"Hajime!" Enshin yelled as he threw his free arm out as Hajime used what little he could to make a desperate leap towards his friend, his hand outstretched to him. There was hope in Hajime's eyes as their hands got closer… only for it to die away like a doused fire as the attempted grab was too short.

A brief moment of contact came, Enshin trying to close his fingers to grasp Hajime's hand, but there just wasn't enough. The tips of their fingers tugged together, only to fail to grab onto anything, Hajime's expression showing his shock as Enshin let out a scream as the boy began to fall away.

Kaori too screamed out Hajime's name as she rushed for the crumbled edge of the bridge, Shizuku and Kouki grabbing onto her arms to prevent her from jumping in after the falling Hajime, who vanished into the abyss below alongside the falling Behemoth, only his own scream following him down. Their other classmates had their own looks of horror on, Meld and his soldiers grimacing, the ones holding Enshin pulling the shocked boy up from the edge, though Enshin's eyes couldn't pull away from the abyss his friend had fallen into.

"Le me go! I have to go help Nagumo-kun! I promised I would protect him! Let me go!" Kaori shrieked as she struggled against Shizuku and Kouki's holds on her, struggling far more fiercely than anyone could have thought her frame would have allowed.

As Shizuku and Kouki yelled to try and get the now beyond reason Kaori to calm down, Enshin could only look at the hand that had failed to grasp Hajime, his fingers started to shake as he could still feel the brief moment… if he'd just reached a bit further, if they'd just been a bit faster, then maybe, _maybe, _he could have grabbed Hajime and stopped his fall from happening. But that wasn't what happened… fate had chosen to be much crueler.

Nobody felt they could say anything to Kaori either. Hajime had fallen down a pit so deep they didn't know if it even had an end. And if it did, it would have been far to deep to be reasonably survivable. But nobody said it for fear of it backfiring and only doubling Kaori's resolve to defy all sense of reason and jump in after Hajime. As she kept struggling, Meld came up behind Kaori, and with a quick swipe, he hit her on the back of the neck, knocking the girl out cold.

Kouki glared at meld as he caught Kaori, though before he could say anything, Kaori tapped her arm to his chest plate, Ryutaro shaking his head at Kouki as well, causing the young man to tighten his jaw and fall silent.

"Sorry, and thank you." Shizuku said, Meld shaking his head, the man's eyes going to Enshin as the soldiers helped him up, Enshin's gaze shadowed over, his grimace causing a bit of blood to ebb from his pierced lip.

"I don't deserve your thanks. I cannot afford to allow any more of you to die. Everybody, we're heading back to the surface as fast as possible. I'll leave her in your care." Meld said, turning and striding towards the front of the group.

"I would have taken her myself even if you tried to stop me." Kouki huffed under his breath, watching Meld with an unhappy gaze… but a sudden chill up his neck made Kouki turn, showing that Enshin was giving him a soft glare that opposed to what Enshin could normally show, was absolutely chilling.

"We couldn't stop her. Someone had to make Kaori stop, or else her mood could've brought down everybody's morale." Shizuku said, gently taking Kaori from Kouki, giving a concerned look towards Enshin as he silently moved past the others to join Meld. "Now go get your butt up at the front with Enshin and the Captain. Nagumo said the same thing, remember? So get us out of here."

"You're right. Let's go." Kouki gave a reluctant nod to Shizuku, moving to the front.

The class had just seen one of their own seemingly fall to his death right in front of them. Even if the current threat was gone, several of them had sat down where they stood, muttering things like "This isn't real" or "I'm done with all of this". True to what had been said, they needed someone to take the lead from them, and Enshin's icy mood certainly wasn't going to uplift any spirits. Kouki went to the front of them all and turned, raising his voice at them.

"Everyone, we need to get out of here alive! I we stop moving now we're dead, so let's go! I'll cut path open for us, so follow my lead!"

The magic circles were still spitting out more Traum Soldiers as Kouki urged the class onwards. As the numbers replenished, Enshin, now seemingly beyond care, blast a group to the side with a massive pulse of dark flames. With Kouki and the others who could still muster the strength for it, the group managed to break their way through and into the staircase beyond, beginning the hurried trek up it and hopefully towards their escape.

The trek was exhaustingly long. They didn't have a clear idea just how long the staircase ran on for, and some estimation led that after a while they must have gone up at _least _thirty floors as they did. Even with body enhancement magic, the exhaustion was beginning to set in. Enshin was definitely starting to feel a heavy weight of exhaustion set in, and others noticed his eyes had returned to their normal blue, while his hair was slowly fading back to blonde as they trekked on. Whatever had happened to him, it was starting to wear off.

It was around the time when Meld was thinking of telling everybody to take a break for a bit that some hope finally came back around. A shimmer became visible not much further up the staircase, a magic circle glowing on a portion of a furthered wall. With a check from the Fair Scope, it showed there was little chance of it being another trap. Instead it seemed more like it was a seal on a hidden door.

Meld approached the circle and chanted the inscription on it, and as the circle gleamed, a portion of the stone wall then moved aside like any good hidden door, revealing a short corridor that was also opening up. Everybody picked up the pace, and as they exited the corridor, the group found themselves surrounded by the scenery of the twenties floor.

All of the exhausted students quickly breathed sighs of relief, many sitting down as they felt it hard to keep moving as they were in the moment, some bursting out into tears as the emotions finally hit them all. Even Enshin and Kouki were leaning against the wall, the former looking like he was ready to collapse then and there.

Meld wanted to let them rest, but, he sucked down his sympathy somewhere deep. The fact they were in the labyrinth hadn't changed. They may have been on familiar territory but the odds of monsters showing up was still present, and they were all too exhausted to afford more confrontations. They could relax once they were out of the dungeon. For now, Meld knew he needed to be the commander, not the kindly mentor.

"Don't go laying around now!" Meld shouted, striding to the front of the pack. "We're not out of here yet! If we stop here then we're as good as dead! Get back into formation, avoid combat as much as possible, and take the quickest route out of here! We only have a little ways to go!"

As expected, a few protests came, but Meld's sharp glare cut them short. Everybody reluctantly hauled themselves up in order to keep moving, some like Kouki and the soldiers trying to hide their exhaustion. It had also been silently decided to give Enshin a bit of a berth, not enough to separate him from the group but enough that, with his clearly still enraged state, if he lashed out at any monsters that decided to show up there wasn't a chance of being caught in any potential crossfire.

Though after the display against the Behemoth, some students were starting to question if they still had anything to worry about. Once the haze of panic had been broken, they'd seen just how much damage Enshin had inflicted onto the monster. Now it was begging the question of how powerful he _really _was. But, nobody dwelled on it as they proceeded up the floors, it was just something in the back of their minds.

Enshin otherwise, was clearly still stewing. True to the expectations of his classmates, the few encounters with monsters they _did _have usually ended in seconds as Enshin wordlessly took to demolishing the creatures that neared him with either his sword or raw strength alone. And nobody felt like they could blame him. Of anything it was probably better Enshin was taking out his frustration on the monsters.

Eventually though, taking what shortcuts they could, the entourage soon found themselves back at the entrance, and the welcoming sight of the main gate. They hadn't even been gone for a full day, and yet the sight felt oddly nostalgic, the stress of the day making it feel as if it had been ages since they'd seen the place.

Once they were at the reception area, many of the exhausted students chose to collapse then and there even with all of their equipment still on. They just wanted to rest and move past this. But there were others, particularly the "Hero Party", who, aside from the still unconscious Kaori, all bore glum expressions, Enshin still looking dead eyed as he leaned against a wall.

Meld overlooked the sight of the worn out teenagers with a heavy feeling as he went to the desk. The receptionist was also looking the students over, likely thinking how they were looking like a regular sight for here at Orcus, the many parties who went down only to come out haggard and reality-checked into a depressed state.

Meld otherwise, had to give his report. First off, of the trap on the 20th floor, which they currently had no way of knowing whether it was now inactive or not, and where it led too. But, most importantly of all, reporting the apparent death of Hajime. Meld tried to hide the pain on his face, but there was no suppressing the sigh that escaped his mouth.

"Enshin, you alright?" Shizuku, otherwise, had set Kaori down and felt the need to check on the other person most affected by this.

And by this point, Enshin looked _mostly _back to normal, aside from a few streaks of crimson scattered in his blonde locks now. But, the depressed look on his face said a lot more than the low sigh he gave did.

"Obviously not." Enshin muttered, Shizuku looking to the side. "If I'd just… whatever, there's no use in mulling on it… now…"

He then started to trail off suddenly, Enshin wavering in place as he stepped off of the wall. Shizuku yelped as he started falling, quickly catching the boy as he just collapsed where he stood. Shizuku checked quickly, and sighed in relief when it was clear he'd just passed out.

Which may have honestly been for the best, really. Nobody wanted to explore anything, they just wanted to rest and be done. So the two who'd already found themselves out cold were probably a bit luckier.

But were Enshin a bit luckier, maybe his unconscious state would have simply remained quiet until his body decided it was time to get him up.

* * *

"Oi, kid, you hearing me?"

Enshin's eyes popped open and he shot upright, but, something wasn't right. He looked around, and found that he was somehow back in his bedroom on Earth. Everything was the way he remembered it, his desk and computer across from him, the window to his left that overlooked the rest of his neighborhood, and the other things strewn about… how his room had looked the day he and his class had been transported to Tortus.

Only, there was an oddity, because somebody was sitting in the chair.

A young man who visibly seemed to be the same age as Enshin, with long crimson hair, and golden, draconic eyes. He was dressed in a red coat and otherwise black clothes, and when his mouth peeked open, it was lined in notably fangs. But maybe the real oddity was that this young man had a startling degree of resemblance to Enshin himself.

"What the… wait… that voice… you're the dragon?!" Enshin nearly fell out of his bed as he realized that, the "dragon" giving an amused sigh as the boy scrambled up.

"To be more precise I'm what Tortus calls a Ryujin." The young man said, rolling a wrist. "Those of us who're strong enough can change into full on dragon forms, and _I'm _a particularly special case. You know what an Atavist is, right? I'm one of those."

"This is moving way too fast…" Enshin muttered, getting a laugh from the "dragon" as he spun the swivel chair around.

"Well considering what just happened, I ain't surprised you're reeling a bit! Would it help if I transformed into my dragon form to prove it?"

"No… please don't actually." Enshin rapidly shook his head, looking around the room again. "We're not back on earth, are we?"

"Obviously not." The "dragon" said, leaning his feet up on the edge of the bed. "This is just a space your memories threw together so there'd be a place familiar to you for us to talk in. We're inside your head right now."

"Right… I passed out after we got out of Orcus… after Hajime… dammit." Enshin slammed his closed hand against the wall, the "dragon" turning his finger in his ear. "If I'd just…"

"Don't go blaming yourself." The "dragon" stood up and then flicked Enshin on the forehead, and he yelped at how much just that flick alone wound up hurting. "If you start saying stupid shit like "if things had been different" or "if I was a little faster" and whatever, I'm seriously gonna change my mind about letting you keep your body. I don't like people who break easy."

"I'm sorry _what?! _Don't just skip past that part!" Enshin snapped, the "dragon" flicking him again. "Will you stop that asshole?!"

"It's Gradion." Was the reply, Enshin blinking as he rubbed the now red spot on his forehead. "My name's Gradion, and ages ago or another, I was a prince of the Ryujin Kurenai clan. Things happened, and, well, obviously now I'm in _this _situation. Figured you my as well know my name now."

"I'm still on that thing about taking over my body…"

"Don't worry about it. I only said that to rile your ass up. That temper of yours is kinda nasty." Enshin felt his face heat up as Gradion cackled at him with an expression that read "troll face" all over it, accented only by his fangs and smirk. "But hey, tell me, you seriously just gonna accept things like that?"

"He fell down a damn abyss! What else am I supposed to think?!" Enshin snapped, Gradion shrugging. "Son of a…"

"I'm just saying. You should at least confirm it. Orcus is an odd little place, so you never know. You _do _have a way to tell whether or not the kid who fell is actually dead, right?"

With that statement, Enshin's eyes began to widen as he realized it, the words starting to leave his throat…

* * *

"The Connector!"

Enshin shot upright yet again, though this time he found himself back in his room in the Heiligh royal capital. Whether anything could have been going on, that wasn't on his mind. He nearly fell out of the bed with how quickly he moved to get out of it and scramble to his nearby coat. He rifled through the pockets as quickly as he could, letting out a victorious laugh as he pulled out the red crystal he was looking for.

With a second of focus, the crystal gained a faint glow, a small magic circle rising over it, and single, small blue orb rose from it. With a bit of hesitance to it, he tapped the orb, and then characters began to appear before it.

_-Hajime Nagumo; Location: Great Orcus Labyrinth-_

"He's alive." Enshin muttered, giving a chuckle as a smile began coming around to his face. "Hey, Gradion, what all do you know about Orcus?"

"_A lot. I don't need to guess what you're planning, do I?"_

"Not at all… I'm gonna conquer that dungeon, as fast as I possibly can!"

* * *

Allow us to fast forward the clock a bit.

Ten days. It had been ten days since Hajime's fall, and true to Enshin's discovery, he was alive. But, just barely.

His fall had brought him to some part of the Orcus dungeon he didn't have any clue where he even was. He'd gotten lucky, having fallen into some underground river and found himself washed up here in this unknown level of the dungeon.

And it hadn't gone well, at all. The monsters on this floor were terrifyingly strong, only really surviving his initial encounters by sheer luck. But in one piece, Hajime wasn't. The most painful thing for him, as he slumped against the wall of the small hole he'd desperately transmuted, was the remains of his let arm, everything from just above the elbow nowhere to be seen, slashed off and then devoured by a bear monster.

Heck the only reason Hajime figured he wasn't dead was because of the green-blue crystal embedded in the stone, that was dripping a faintly glowing fluid gathered in a shallow puddle on the ground.

And such was the limbo Hajime had been in for the past ten days. Starving and thirsty, practically delirious, thinking, why? Why did he have to fall? What had he done to warrant this fate? Who had done it? Who had aimed that fireball for him amid all that chaos? Why was nobody coming to find him, if they even thought he was still alive?

This dark feeling had begun welling up in Hajime as he slumped down more. He just wanted to go home, to get out of this, to stop feeling this pain. And the image was still burned into his memory, the faces of Enshin and Kaori as he fell, especially Enshin's horrified expression. They'd been so close… why the hell had things been so cruel?

"I just want to get back home… back to Earth…" Hajime slumped again, and a small sound caught his dulled hearing. A small clink and a splash. Hajime's dull eyes looked to the puddle near him, and in it, a small, sky blue light now. Hajime reached his remaining hand out slowly and wrapped his fingers around it.

The Connector that Enshin had given him.

As Hajime pulled the item near him, his eyes suddenly shined as seeing the item reminded him of a promise, one between friends to find each other if they got separated. Hajime slowly sat up as he gazed at that crystal. He'd wondered it for a while even, if the others had gotten out alive. Focusing on the crystal, a red orb appeared from the magic circle that formed. Hajime focused on that orb, and the text that appeared from it.

_-Enshin Kakumei; Location: Great Orcus Labyrinth-_

"He's still here…" Hajime knew Enshin hadn't fallen. But, in ten days, what could have happened then? Was he there to clear the dungeon? If he was, could it be because he was down there to find him? "If he is… I have to live."

But not just live. Holing himself up here wouldn't do any good. Hajime needed to _survive. _Sitting around wouldn't do him any good. He couldn't just wait around to be saved. He was already starving, and that was only adding to the haze in his head.

"If I want to live… I'm gonna have to kill." Hajime pocketed the Connector, a wicked smile coming to his face. It all made sense as he thought about it. "Yeah… I won't sit around and wait to be saved. I'm gonna live, and get out of here on my own… I won't just sit round Enshin. When we meet… I won't be the guy who needs to be saved anymore. Because anything that becomes my enemy… I'll kill them all!"

Two paths had now been set. One above, and one below, two paths that with chances permitted, would cross and meet in the abyss.


End file.
